


I'll Keep You Safe

by ParadiseShards



Series: Save Me [1]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: (But only for like two chapters before Phil gets rid of them), Bad is a magical demon with fluffy cat ears and a tail, Fox Hybrid Floris | Fundy, Goat Hybrid Toby Smith | Tubbo, Human build-a-bear, I just decided Philza is a cryptid or some shit to explain some stuff, Kidnapping, Limited Magic, Mentioned Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Ghostbur - Freeform, Mentioned Wilbur Soot, Morse code hahah fun coded messages, My First Work in This Fandom, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Piglin Hybrid Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade Hears Voices (Video Blogging RPF), This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, TommyInnit Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Winged Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), do you wanna build a snowman but its a wheelchair because muscle atrophy sucks, i'll add characters/tags as needed, mmm we like cliffhangers don’t we, nice things like sane parents, potions are basically drugs, tommy and techno bond over getting kidnapped by dadza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 23
Words: 39,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28907907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadiseShards/pseuds/ParadiseShards
Summary: Tommy gets kidnapped by Phil. there's a few things he probably could have done to avoid this, starting with not drinking the weird spidery tea. But Tommy doesn't suspect anything, because nothing bad ever happens on the Dream SMP. Never. Definitely.
Relationships: Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: Save Me [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164671
Comments: 741
Kudos: 1142
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	1. This tea tastes like spiders

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Philza](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28621296) by Anonymous. 



> This is my first fanfic I'm writing and posting, so the characters are probably gonna be a little ooc. Either way, I hope you all enjoy reading it! :D

Between Tubbo acting strange and wanting to get away from L'manburg for a little, Tommy found himself visiting his father and brother more and more often. That was actually what he was doing now, walking through the snowy tundra on his way to Phil and Techno's house. The snow crunched under his boots as he walked, trying to see if he could spot any of the snow foxes that sometimes wandered out of the spruce forests to play in the tundra's snowdrifts. He couldn't find any though, and turned his focus back onto the path to Techno's cabin.

He noticed the smoke from the chimney first, and soon after, Tommy could make out the smudge on the horizon that was his destination. He walked a little faster, thinking of the warm fire that seemed to never go out, and Philza's tea. He was even looking forward to seeing Edward again, Techno and Phil's Enderman roommate. Tommy did notice that Carl wasn't in his pen, and assumed that meant Technoblade wasn't home at the moment. That was fine with him. Even though he was okay around him, he still preferred to avoid him. He supposed he was still a little upset about the whole 'summoning two withers and destroying L'manburg even more than it already was' thing. 

When he knocked on the door, he faintly heard a chair scraping against the ground, and then the door swung open to reveal his father, and no Technoblade, as he had predicted. 

"Hey, Tommy! Come in out of the cold, you're here just in time for tea. Let me make some!" Phil seemed pretty happy to see him, and Tommy just chalked it up to him being the best of Philza's sons(and maybe also because Wilbur was dead, and Techno was distant in more ways than one, and maybe Philza was worried that L'manburg would take another of his sons, and Tommy had gotten busy with Vice President things, and so he hadn't visited in a little over a week). 

Tommy pulled out one of the other few chairs in the kitchen, turning it so that he could face Philza. As per what was slowly becoming tradition, Tommy began telling Philza about what he had been up to in the week he had been gone, not particularly focusing on what Phil was doing with the tea. 

“There’s a lot going on in L’manburg recently, which means I’ve had a ton of work to do. That man who showed up recently? Ranboo lives in L’manburg now, in one of the houses you and Ghostbur built. Tubbo’s been acting kind of strange as well, and not just his normal chaos. But back to Ghostbur- He lives in the sewers now! I think he writes down there or something, he’s got a ton of books and historical documents and stuff. And a few brewing stands, maybe he’s starting another drug empire. He did have a few invisibility potions. Makes sense, as he’s a ghost.”

Phil interrupted Tommy’s rambling, having waited for his son to pause. “That’s pretty interesting, mate. Here’s your tea, I tried a new recipe this time.”

Phil watched as Tommy looked at the cup, watching the slightly duller than usual liquid swirl in the cup. Was it just him, or did the tea have shimmery flecks in it? It almost reminded him of a potion, but that made no sense. Maybe Phil’s different recipe had glitter or some obscure shiny plant in it.

He missed how Philza stared at him, as he drank the whole cup at once, Instead grimacing at the taste, or more specifically, what it reminded him of.

“Phil, that was probably the strangest tea recipe I’ve ever tasted. What was in the tea bag? Dried spiders or something? That's terrible!” He laughed, Phil smiling at Tommy’s reaction. “But seriously, please never make me drink that again, it’s awful.”

Phil shook his head, wheezing a little as he laughed. Tommy really had an interesting sense of humor. He patiently listened to tommy as he started rambling about Wil- Ghostbur again, silently counting down the seconds. 

About two minutes after, Tommy began stuttering a little, stumbling over his words. It wasn’t noticeable at first, but steadily got worse. It confused him a little, he certainly didn’t think he stuttered very much, and definitely not like this. It was almost like his tongue was tying itself into knots, which wasn’t very helpful. He just brushed it off though, at least until he started to zone out at four minutes. He was talking about maybe helping Ghostbur get some more books for his collection when he trailed off, staring out a window. His train of thought just abandoned him, as did his words. Everything seemed kind of fuzzy as well.

“Hey, Tommy, you seem a little out of it. You should probably get some rest.” Tommy nodded at Phil’s suggestion, now too out of it to properly respond. He let Phil help him out of his chair, only for a sudden wave of vertigo to wash over him, and he practically fell over into the shorter man’s arms. He tried to regain his balance and stand properly on his own, but his efforts were futile. After that, he quickly slipped away into unconsciousness.

Philza didn’t carry Tommy to one of the spare beds in the cabin, instead dragging him outside, and then adjusting his grip so that Tommy was thrown over his shoulder. Nobody but Techno knew about his base deep in the spruce forest, and even then, Techno had never actually gone into the base. He had no reason to. And despite the base being pretty far out, Phil had no worries about Tommy waking up before he got there. 

Phil was really good with his potions, after all. He knew the most efficient ways to heal injuries with potions, he knew how to make the most potent and discrete poisons, and he knew exactly how to balance out weakness and poison to not only knock out a 6’3 slightly malnourished 16 year old teenager for 10 hours on the dot, but also how to make it seamlessly blend into tea with minimal signs. He couldn’t do much about the distinctly spidery taste of weakness potions, though. He had gotten lucky with Tommy not recognizing it.


	2. Kidnapping your independent teenage son isn’t very poggers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy accidentally almost burns the very nice carpet.

Tommy slowly drifted back to consciousness, struggling to escape the grasp of a quickly fading dream. He opened his eyes, wincing at the bright light from a lantern set next to his bed. Wait. His bed didn’t have a lantern next to it. And neither did the bed he usually slept in when visiting Philza and Technoblade. Tommy sat up very fast after realizing that, looking at the room around himself with wide eyes. This was definitely not anywhere he had ever been before.

He tried to recall what had happened to him before he apparently fell asleep. He was going to visit Phil. Did he not make it to the cabin? No, that couldn’t be right. He definitely made it, he had talked to his dad about what was going on in L’manburg, and he had tea with him. Then… What happened after that? Everything got fuzzy after he drank the tea. The tea. The weird as fuck spidery tea. Tea isn’t supposed to taste like spiders, is it? And Phil had been acting weird. Phil, his dad who was scarily good with his potions. Potions like Weakness, which taste like their main ingredient: Spiders. Or more specifically, spider eyes. But surely not. Why would Philza, his dad, knock him out with disgusting drugged tea?

Tommy realized that staying in this surprisingly comfortable bed and just thinking about his situation wasn’t going to help him actually solve anything, or figure out what the hell is going on here, so he flung the blankets off of his legs and crawled out of the bed. Standing was a little difficult at first, his legs really didn’t want to work, but he managed to half stumble his way to the slightly cracked open door at the other end of the room. 

He pulled the door open, and peeked out. The rest of the house(from what he could see) matched the room he was in, in terms of looks. The walls and ceiling were both made of spruce wood, and the floor was carpeted with a very soft cream colored carpet. His room opened into a hallway with three other doors. His room was right at the end of the hallway, on the left wall. There was a door directly across from him, a door at the back wall of the hallway, and another door on the same wall as his, but farther down towards where he assumed the hall led to the rest of the house.

It seemed safe, and he couldn’t hear anyone moving around, so he decided to leave the room he was in, and check all the doors before seeing where the hall went. The two doors closest to him were locked, but the door farther down the hall led to a little bathroom. This room had a stone brick floor, because carpeted bathrooms are just wrong on a fundamental level. A quick check in the bathroom revealed nothing of use, unless he was going to try and defend himself against potential enemies using a hand towel or toothbrush.

The hallway led to a room walled with bookshelves, and it contained a couch in a corner next to a fireplace, a table, and three chairs. There was a trapdoor in another corner with a ladder, but when he tried to push it open, it wouldn’t budge, and he could hear what could have been chains or a padlock clattering on the other side. Another door in the library/sitting room/dining room led to a kitchen, but he didn’t have time to explore it as well, because he heard what sounded like footsteps above him. He ran back into the library room thing, grabbing a torch off the wall to use against whoever came through the door.

Despite already having guessed who had kidnapped him, he still felt his heart drop when he saw Phil climbing down the ladder, his sooty black wings folded close to his back. Which meant it definitely wasn’t someone dressed in Phil’s clothes and a Phil wig. 

“... Dad?” Philza hopped off the ladder, turnin to face him. “What’s going on here? Why did you fucking drug and kidnap me?” The torch drooped in his hand, and Phil’s eyes widened, taking on a panicked look. He ran over to his son, snatching the torch from his hand.

“Careful! You’ll burn yourself if you hold it like that!” Philza said, as he put the torch back into it’s sconce on the wall. Tommy almost felt like he was a little kid again, getting scolded about running around with a burning stick. Phil hadn’t treated him like this for ages, not since he was a small kid who couldn’t take care of himself.

“Phil, you’re avoiding the question! Why am I here? And why are you acting like I’m a child? I can take care of myself!” Phil gave him a weird look at that. 

“I thought the same, but I can’t trust you to stay safe anymore. You're onto your last life, and you get into conflicts so easily. Not to mention all the enemies you’ve made. I just can’t have you dying and ending up like Ghostbur.”

As his father talked, Tommy noticed his eyes took on an almost… obsessive look? Or sad? Determined? Maybe a mix of all three. It scared Tommy a little, he had never seen Phil get like this before, though it did remind him of when Philza would start a project, and how he would sometimes refuse to rest until he had gotten just a little more done. Having that obsession turned on him was terrifying. In that moment, Tommy knew there was no way he’d be able to convince his father to let him leave, but he brushed that thought off. It wasn’t in his nature to dwell on hopeless thoughts for long; he didn’t know if he’d be able to pull himself back out of a spiral.

“You can’t just kidnap me, though! I have a life of my own! And my friends will notice I’m gone. Tubbo and the rest of the cabinet will try to find me. They’ll know something’s wrong when I don’t go back to L’manburg-”

“I told them you left to find a Woodland Mansion. They won’t think anything’s up for quite a while. I don’t think you really understand what I’m doing for you, though. You're safe here. Nothing can hurt you, so long as you're here and I can protect you.”

“No, I don’t think you understand what you’ve done. You kidnapped me. You’re keeping me here against my will. Can’t you see what’s fundamentally wrong with that?” Tommy was now looming over Philza, gesturing at the air to emphasize his point.

“You’re clearly just upset right now. Soon, you’ll realize that what I’m doing is for the best.”

Phil walked past Tommy and into the kitchen, but Tommy didn’t follow. This whole situation was tiring him out, and the last traces of the spider tea was beginning to give him a headache. He half stumbled over to one of the sitting chairs by the fireplace, and tried to process what just happened. Maybe he was stuck in some kind of crazy fever dream, and he was actually still in Techno and Phil’s cabin. Fever dreams can do that, right? There was no way his father, Philza Minecraft would just up and kidnap him with no warning. Surely not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bad things seem to happen when Philza is in the kitchen, and I don’t mean he accidentally lights the oven on fire. :)
> 
> Also, send a 1 in the comments if you want a chapter from the pov of people in L’manburg (when they notice Tommy is missing), or a 2 if you don’t.


	3. Why does the food look all sad and depressing?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy decides spiders is his least favorite flavor, and that he hates splash potions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Making Tommy suffer since the 59th of December 2020
> 
> Updates will happen on days I don’t have school, so I probably won’t be updating for a few days.

Tommyinnit decided there was absolutely 100% no way this could possibly be real, and it was just some crazy weird fever dream or something. Yep, that's it. He would wake up soon enough from this, and have a good laugh about it with Tubbo when he gets back to L’manburg, and the best thing to do right now was sit it out and not let the ‘dream’ get to him too much. Yeeeaahhh.

He stared through the doorway into the kitchen, where he heard Phil presumably cooking something. What did he normally do in situations like this? Make fun of the food? Ramble about his day? But there was nothing to really talk about, he hadn’t done anything today. He could just talk to dream phil? That seemed like something a normal and sane person would do when dreaming. Talk to the dream people. He shakily stood up, and walked over to stand in the doorway, despite the brighter light making his headache worse.

“Heeeey Philza Minecraft, my man. Big P, Dadza, what’re you making?” Tommy elected to ignore how his voice sounded strained, and cracked in the middle of the sentence. From the looks of it, Philza was making some kind of soup, as well as sad looking bread. The dough looked kinda gray tinted and depressed, like what you would think prison food would look like in an exaggeratedly stereotypical prison movie.

“I’m making rabbit stew and bread to dip in it. Was there something specific you wanted?” Phil asked, glancing over at Tommy.

“No, nothing really, though uh… maybe no tea with it?” Phil nodded at the answer.

“I should be done with this in a few minutes, you can wait at the table if you want.” Tommy leaves the doorway, doing his best to walk in a straight line to the table, which looks remarkably similar to the one in Techno’s house.

“Heeeeeey Daaaaaaad,” Tommy called back into the kitchen as he pulled out a chair and sat down. When he heard his dad answer, he continued. “Did you make the table in Techno’s cabin, or did you steal it with me?”

He did his best to keep his voice from wavering, managing to hold a joking tone. “Yeh, I made both tables. Took a while to do them both, I hand-carved them.” Tommy wasn’t that surprised. Real Philza could easily spend days working on making one table look perfect, and so it only made sense that Dream Philza could do that too. 

He idly kicked his legs under the table as Phil came out of the kitchen with two bowls of soup, some sad looking sliced bread, and two cups of what appeared to be water at a glance. Now with the food properly baked and set out in front of him, Tommy realized just how sad and depressing the food really was. The bread was gray tinted and looked a little soggy without actually being damp, the soup was a little gray, and the water was grayish and a little sparkly. Just like the spider tea, which was definitely mixed with some kind of weakness potion.

Tommy semi-discretely pushed the sparkly water away, and instead picked up a slice of bread and examined it. It seemed normalish, aside from the coloring, and the same went for the soup. He stirred it for a minute or two before actually trying any, and found it tasted… Almost normal. It tasted like rabbit, potato, mushroom, spiders, and carrot.

Spiders.

Sudden panic and terror and a horrible realization struck Tommy as he thought about what he was tasting, and why everything looked grayish, why the water was sparkly, and that this wasn’t a dream, it was real, and he had to run, escape, get out, get away from Phil and the spiked food-

He shot up and bolted from his spot at the table, almost tripping over his fallen chair as he sprinted to the ladder on the wall behind him, the trap door he hadn’t seen Phil lock, and scaled the ladder as quickly as he could. The trap door was indeed not locked, and he flung it open. He barely stopped after getting out to slam the door back down and knock a nearby shelf over on top of it, before sprinting down the stone passageway as quickly as he could.

He made it about 10 feet before he heard the trap door shake, some of the fallen items shifting off of it.

He made it 5 more feet before his foot broke a delicate string in the path, and dispensers on the ceiling dropped splash potions in front of him.

They shattered on the ground, and Tommy coughed as he breathed in the grayish purple smoke that had been trapped in the splash bottles. He stumbled a few more steps before the potions set in, a steady numbness spreading out through his body, and his limbs refusing to move as he tripped and fell to the cold floor. At least he didn’t fall on the shattered glass a few steps behind him.

Tommy couldn’t do anything but stare ahead at the tunnel, and listen to Philza finally shoving the trap door open, and pushing the fallen items aside. He heard the tapping sound of shoes on the stone as Phil walked closer, and tommy was not crying, no, he was fine and this wasn’t terrifying at all-

He watched the ground drop away from him as he was lifted up, and as Phil checked him over for any cuts on his arms or face. None, though there would be a bruise where Tommy’s cheek had hit the ground.

“I thought we were past this- now I’ll have to make the door lock from the inside as well.” Tommy cried a little harder at that, and at how disappointed Phil sounded. Like he had trusted Tommy truly wouldn’t try and leave, like he thought Tommy agreed this arrangement was safer and better than being outside and living his own life.

He tried to blink the tears out of his eyes as he was half slung over Phil’s shoulder, his face and hands brushing against the sooty black wings on Phil’s back. He wished he was anywhere but here, as Phil lowered him back down through the trapdoor. 

He ate his food with Philza’s help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does Tommy get pet fox?
> 
> Still taking votes on the L’manburg chapter :)


	4. Who locks literally all the cabinets in their kitchen?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy fills a cup with water, and spills it on a bird man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol I forgot yesterday was only Saturday, and i had another day in the weekend. I’ll probably post the next chapter on Friday or Saturday.

Tommy blinked open his eyes, looking around briefly, and felt the wave of various emotions wash over him. He was disappointed he was still here in this endforsaken prison-house, but he was thankful he wasn’t trapped in his own body anymore, and able to move. He was also happy Phil wasn’t still here, but he was a little terrified his father would come back again and force him to drink another potion or eat spiked food and trap him again, unable to move at all on his own, and easily influenced to do things.

He shivered at that thought, recalling just how easily Philza was able to convince him to eat the soup, and how he didn’t even try to fight back against Phil. He was a big man, he wasn’t weak! He also wasn’t supposed to get kidnapped. If anything, he should be kidnapping other people! With a knife! That's how things were supposed to go!

He pushed himself up and out of the armchair he had fallen asleep in a few hours earlier, and walked into the kitchen. Tommy told himself he’d find a knife and then he’d… he would stab Phil and threaten him to let him out. Yea, that's what he would do! He strode up to the first cabinet, and pulled on the handle. It barely budged, something catching and stopping the cabinet from opening. Upon closer inspection, he saw that there was a keyhole in the cabinet door. Who locks their cabinets? That’s just such a strange thing to do.

Tommy tried opening the next cabinet, and the one after that, and the next one, until he had tried and failed to open every cabinet in the kitchen. Not even the oven would open, and the stove wouldn’t light when he tried to turn it on. The only working appliance in the kitchen was the sink, and the only thing left on the countertop was a single wooden cup, presumably for if he got thirsty or something while Phil was gone. He couldn’t help but think that Philza hadn’t given him a glass or ceramic cup because he thought Tommy would break it and hurt himself. He wasn’t a child!

This was okay, though. Tommy could make this work, surely. He could use the cup and water! He could splash Phil or something, maybe that would distract him long enough for Tommy to climb the ladder and start running. He knew about the splash trap now, he wouldn’t step on the string this time. And he would keep an eye out for any other traps. He could escape what he assumed was one of Phil’s hidden bases, and he could try and figure out where he was. He could run back to L’manburg, and surely once he was there he would be safe from Phil. Tubbo and Fundy and Quackity would protect him, and if it came to it, he knew he could also count on Eret and maybe Techno to keep Philza away from him, however much he hated to rely on his brother or the traitor king. 

He heard the telltale clanking of chains outside the trap door, and quickly filled up the cup with water. He hid around the side of the bookshelf, the corner just enough to hide him from Phil as he climbed down the ladder. As soon as his dad was off the ladder and about to notice him, Tommy splashed the water into his face, and shoved him out of the way and tried to scale the ladder and escape the rooms that had trapped him for what he assumed had been three days. It wasn’t like he had a clock or a window so he could tell what time it was.

He shoved the door back open, immensely thankful that Phil hadn’t locked it yet- he had watched his dad install a lock to the inside of the door just like he said he would, while Tommy had been stuck in the armchair, unable to move due to the remaining effects of the food and splash potions. He supposed that made it all the worse, when he felt hands grabbing him around the waist and pulling him back down, having barely gotten his shoulders out before his escape attempt came to an end. He found himself wrapped in Phil’s arms, a hug slightly too tight to be normal, the sooty black wings that curled around him no longer comforting, and more trapping. 

Tommy felt like he was suffocating in the enclosed space, and struggled with all the strength he had left to escape his father’s trapping arms to no avail. His father only hugged him tighter, and the wings drew in closer. Realizing his struggles were only making things worse, Tommy gave up and went limp, barely holding in his sobs as he stared at the white diamond patterns at the ends of his flight feathers.

Phil eventually pulled back his wings and walked Tommy over to one of the armchairs, setting him down into it before returning to the trap door to lock it.

“Tommy, you really can’t act like that. I don’t want to, but if I have to, I’ll lock you in your room whenever I have to leave. You can’t escape from here, and it’s dangerous out there anyway! You shouldn’t want to escape. I have everything you need to be comfortable and safe down here, you should be happy.”

Tommy didn’t respond at first, but he felt part of his resolve to escape and not stop trying until he was successful, die. Phil wouldn’t let him out. Phil really thought he was doing the right thing, here. Phil was doing this for him, he truly only wanted Tommy to be safe.

“I don’t just need to be comfortable and ‘safe’ to be happy. I need my friends! I need Tubbo to do stupid shit so we can laugh about it! I need Fundy to come up with some outlandish idea or prank! I need Quackity to show up and start yelling in spanish for no discernible reason and throw drugs at everyone! I can’t just be happy and alone down here with no friends, and only a crazed old man for company! You drug all my meals so I can’t do anything myself, and you use that as an excuse to keep me here and to ‘take care of me’! That’s just messed up!” Tommy would be lying if he said he wasn’t crying again by the end of his rant.

Phil seemed shocked at first, but his expression shifted to cold determination soon after. “I can get you a pet, but that’s all. Your friends are part of what's so dangerous out there, I can’t trust them to keep you safe.”

Phil left it at that, only grabbing a book from the shelf and sitting across from Tommy, reading as Tommy avoided looking at him and sulked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last I checked, the votes for the L’manburg chapter were tied, so I’ve decided to do one anyway.


	5. A step back and a skip forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tubbo is worried and Dream isn’t helping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early chapter!  
> A little treat for you all :)  
> Enjoy this (mostly) calm chapter, because the next few are gonna be f u n, and by that, I mean I’ll have to add trigger/content warnings.

Tubbo sat under the L’mantree, watching the sunrise over the SMP lands. He could see the silhouettes of the various towers built up across the SMP, and if he looked farther past that, he could barely see the beginning of the unclaimed lands bordering the horizon. He wondered where Tommy was- if he had reached the woodland mansion he had set out to find yet. Tubbo knew they could be quite far away, but even then, he didn’t think it should have taken this long for Tommy to find it, raid it, and then return. Maybe he just got lost on his way back, or he found something interesting to check out, like a rare biome. Or maybe he had already returned to the SMP, and was visiting his father and brother. 

Tommy had told Tubbo that Phil and Techno had a shared cabin somewhere far away from L’manburg, and that he was leaving so much to visit them. Tubbo hadn’t liked that Tommy was spending time at the house of the man who helped blow up L’manburg, but he wasn’t going to stop Tommy from visiting his family. He knew that Tommy didn’t exactly like his brother at the moment, and trusted that Tommy wouldn’t go sharing state secrets with the enemy. He’d have to ask Phil if he had seen Tommy since he left for his totem gathering trip.

Given he was distracted by his thoughts, Tubbo didn’t hear Fundy coming up behind him. He was startled back to the present when the bench creaked a little, the sloppily yet lovingly nailed together boards shifting to accommodate the added weight of another person. 

“Hey, Mr. President! Whatcha doing up here?” the fox hybrid asked, his tail subtly swishing behind him.

“Oh, not much, actually. I was just thinking about Tommy. Have you seen him by any chance? He’s been gone for two whole weeks. Or at least, it's been two weeks since Philza told us he left. It shouldn’t take this long for him to find a mansion, right?” Tubbo was clearly concerned about his best friend, but he knew Tommy could take care of himself, and didn’t need Tubbo fussing over him and being overbearing. Still, he can’t help but worry.

“I haven’t seen him. And he’s probably fine, he probably just got sidetracked or something. He’ll be back soon.” Fundy could tell that his answer hadn't done much to comfort Tubbo, so he added on, “I’ll keep an eye out for him, okay? I’ll tell you if I see him around, or hear any news of him.”

This seemed to satisfy Tubbo, and he nodded his thanks to Fundy. “If you can ask the other cabinet members to do the same? I know It’s probably nothing, but I can’t help it. Thank you, Fundy.”

With that, Tubbo left the bench, making his way down towards New L’manburg’s announcement stage and town. He knew it was unlikely that Phil would be in the little house he made for himself, but even if he wasn’t, Tubbo might find Ghostbur down there. He might have seen Tommy, or know something about what direction the mansion he went to was in. Sometimes Ghostbur just knew things with no explanation as to how he found it out.

He walked down the spruce stairs to the wooden deck and pathways that crossed over the flooded crater of Old L’manburg. Even from this distance, Tubbo could tell the little house Phil lived in was empty, and it was likely he hadn’t been back since he left last time, and Tubbo talked to him.

Tubbo dwelled on the thought, running his hands through his fluffy brown hair, and brushing over the little ram horns he hid with his hair. They had started growing in during the Schlatt Administration, and so Tubbo was able to easily avoid Tommy until he stopped bleeding from where they had torn his skin. He kept hiding them after, because he was afraid it would remind everyone of the other ram hybrid president, and the last thing Tubbo needed was his country turning on him in fear of him becoming the next Schlatt. (Not that Tubbo didn’t have the same fear. He already had the horns and the position, and he was terrified the power of his position would drive him mad.)

Tubbo was startled out of his thoughts for the second time that day, this time by someone placing a hand on his shoulder. Tubbo spun around, coming face to face with a man in a green hoodie and white porcelain mask with a simple smiley face drawn onto it.

“Dream.” Tubbo said, his voice wavering the slightest bit.

“Tubbo.” Dream responded, his voice firm in contrast. “Where’s Tommy?”

Tubbo was surprised by the question, and answered honestly. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him for a while, and Phil told me he left to find a mansion two weeks ago. Why do you ask? Has he done something?”

Dream just shakes his head. “I like to know where everyone is. Bad things are bound to happen if you don’t know what’s happening in your own country.” Dream abruptly turned and walked away, not giving Tubbo the chance to ask what he meant by that. Did he still count the citizens of L’manburg as part of the SMP? Or was he implying Tubbo had no control over his own country?

Tubbo didn’t need to know every move of every citizen in his country. He respected their privacy, and hoped that they would return the respect to him. If Tommy wanted to go and hunt for Totems for whatever reason, that was Tommy’s business. Tubbo was admittedly a little upset Tommy hadn’t told him or even asked if he wanted to come along, despite how Tubbo was busy improving New L’manburg. He could have put Fundy or Quackity in charge or something while they were gone.

Something didn’t sit right with Tubbo about why Dream had asked about Tommy. If Tommy had done something, it was Tubbo’s right as president of L’manburg to know and assess the situation, but Tubbo was pretty certain that Tommy hadn’t done anything. Dream had almost seemed worried about Tommy as well, but that didn’t make much sense. Unless Dream actually cared, but that was unlikely. Dream was the cause of one of Tommy’s deaths, after all.

Tubbo was growing more and more certain that something was horribly wrong, and Tommy was caught up in it somehow. Maybe Phil was involved as well. He had been acting strange ever since he killed Wilbur, and had seemed even more off when Tubbo talked to him last. And to add onto that, even Dream seemed worried, and that was very uncharacteristic for him. Tubbo decided to keep investigating, though he wouldn’t do anything just yet. L’manburg still needed him, and maybe Tommy would come back soon, with a few totems he would show off to Tubbo, as well as a little scratched up from traveling and fighting.

Hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, we get to meet Laelaps!


	6. Things are getting worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy, fire burns you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Laelaps!!!  
> Tw/cw: self harm, sort of attempted suicide, thoughts of death, descriptions of a panic attack
> 
> Please tell me if I missed anything!
> 
> Also I haven’t figured out how italics work on here yet, so if something is inside lines like this / /, then it’s supposed to be italicized.

Tommy’s life hasn’t been very fun recently. In fact, every time he wakes up, things seem to get a little worse, a little more difficult to not give in to Phil, even just to make things a little bit better. He had begun to lock Tommy in his room when he left the basement house, claiming it was safer and for the best, but Tommy had a hard time believing that. Every once in a while, though, Phil would leave Tommy out in the library room, but only if he was still basically paralyzed by the spiked food and ‘water’ Tommy was pretty certain was actually just straight weakness potion. And sometimes when he did that, he would be gone long enough for the potion to wear off, and Tommy could have ‘freedom’ outside of his room, and unsupervised by Phil.

Such as now. And Tommy was using his temporary freedom from the confines of his room and the potions to hide in… his room. Because he heard the trap door creak, and that meant Phil was outside and would come in any moment, and he would be forced to eat more spiked food, or he would have to spend time with Philza, and Tommy would have to pretend to be happy because if he wasn’t, Phil might think he’s going to try and escape again, and then everything will get so, so much worse-

Tommy could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he curled in on himself. His chest hurt, and he felt so, so cold despite knowing he was sweating, and was it just him, or was everything starting to get blurry and out of focus..?

He heard the creaking again, and violently flinched, hitting his head against the wall behind him, but it wasn’t Phil who looked into his room. A small pointed face poked into his room, the snow fox looking at him with her dark, thoughtful eyes. It was just Laelaps, the half-grown fox pup his dad had brought home about a week ago. Or, at least Tommy thought it was about a week ago. He didn’t have a clock, and he certainly didn’t have any windows. He probably would have tried to break them with his wooden cup by now if he did.

It was horrible here. Completely terrible. How long would Phil keep him here? Because honestly, Tommy had come to terms with the fact he wasn’t getting out of here unless someone found him and saved him. Would Philza keep him forever? Like some kind of pet, stuck in a cage and never let out? Tommy barely even noticed he had shakily stood up and walked to the fireplace.

Tommy had developed a few bad habits since he had been locked down here. And it had started more or less harmlessly, or at least that’s what he told himself. It wasn’t really hurting him, right? To stick his arm through the grate, and see how long he could hold his hand over the flames.

In the flames.

He watched the fire dance around his fingers, barely feeling how it burned. If he held his hand in long enough, would he catch fire like the logs that fueled the fire? If he died here, would he become a ghost? /would Phil find a way to trap his ghost here, too?/

Tommy was startled when he felt little teeth tugging against his arm, and he dragged his eyes away from the flames, and to Laelaps, who was trying to pull his arm out of the grate, and his hand out of the fire.

The pain finally got through to him, and he yanked his hand back out of the fireplace. His fingers were more than a little singed, and he ran to the kitchen sink to hold his hand under the running water. Laelaps padded after him, winding in between his legs and looking up at him with her big, worried eyes, and Tommy couldn’t help but feel guilty. He was scaring the little fox, his only friend down here. He couldn’t do that to her, it was cruel.

Tears sprung to his eyes, and Tommy turned the water off, before sinking down to lean against the cabinets. Laelaps hopped into his lap, and pressed her head into his (unburnt) hand until he started petting her. It made him feel better, calmer, her fur was soft and fluffy, but it also made him feel more guilty and afraid. The most he had ever done recently was singe his fingertips a little. Nothing that would really leave a mark. But now, his fingers were truly scorched, his hand burning and tingling and feeling oddly cold at the same time. He couldn’t hide this from Philza, and it would make him even more protective. 

After that first incident with the torch, all of them had been replaced with lanterns, and it hadn’t even been that bad. Would Phil get rid of the fireplace all together? It was the only source of heat. The house would get so very cold without it. 

Tommy didn’t notice when he started crying even harder, now laying on his side and curled around Laelaps, who stayed in his arms. She wouldn’t leave the boy, who was just as trapped here as she was.

-

Philza climbed down the ladder, hooking the padlock through the loops in the trap door and ceiling, snapping it shut. Anything to keep his son where Phil could protect him, where Tommy would be safe.

Less safe than he thought it was, apparently.

The first thing Phil noticed was that Tommy wasn’t sitting in the armchair, where he had left him. No big surprise there, he was gone longer than he thought he would be, and Tommy tended to wander when his protection wore off. The second thing he noticed was the smell of burning flesh. Now that sent Phil into a panic, scouring the house until he found both Laelaps and Tommy in the kitchen, intact and alive, given how Laelaps had raised her head to look at him when he came in, and how even in his sleep, Tommy flinched at the sound of Phil’s footsteps. What had happened when Phil had stupidly let his son out into the world unsupervised that made him this afraid of the sound of someone walking, he couldn’t imagine.

He crouched down next to Tommy, noticing how he had one hand tucked close to his stomach, and he gently pulled it away to get a good look at it. He cringed at the blackened fingers, half washed off soot clinging to red and burnt skin. He set Tommy’s injured hand back down, before rushing to the bathroom, and unlocking the cabinet under the sink. He pulled out gauze and a tin of burn cream, set them on the arm of the couch, then returned to Tommy. He slid his arms under Tommy’s back and legs, lifting him up bridal style, and got all the way into the library room before Tommy woke up and started screaming.

Phil had to kneel down and half set Tommy back down, afraid he was going to make Phil drop him with how much he was thrashing. Phil curled his wings around them both, blocking out the warm light of the lanterns and fireplace, and held Tommy until the panicked screaming turned to crying, and then a short while later, silence. Philza waited until he was sure Tommy wasn’t going to start struggling again, then carried Tommy the rest of the way to the couch. Tommy allowed Phil to wash the rest of the soot off of his hand with a wet towel, then apply the burn cream and bandage his hand. He didn’t react much to anything Phil did, just wincing a little when Phil touched a particularly sensitive bit of burnt skin.

Phil waited on the couch for a few minutes longer, before sighing and standing. He was about to enter the kitchen when Tommy asked, “how long have I been here?”

He supposed hearing his son properly speak to him for the first time that week compelled him to tell him, albeit very reluctantly.

“It’s been two months, and about a week.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The time skips are getting bigger :)  
> Most of the chapters have about a week long gap between them so I can progress the story without a lot of filler.
> 
> Comments motivate me to continue! I’d love to hear your thoughts and theories on what has happened and what you think will come next, and I’m always willing to answer questions to the best of my abilities! Even if its just telling me about your day, I’m always willing to listen!
> 
> EDIT: I was trying to save it as a draft, not post it!  
> Welp, too late now. Enjoy another early chapter!


	7. Who needs food anyways?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy, food keeps you alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw/cw: starving yourself, thinking about death

Tommy stared at his bowl, just stirring the soup and not actually eating it. Something seemed so wrong about eating the same recipes from his childhood, when they were being used like this. Like scratching out old memories and replacing them with terrible new ones. Foods that once brought him comfort now served to trap him and keep him stuck in this nightmare.

He remembered when he was really little, around eight, and his brothers were thirteen, Wilbur had told him that it was possible to survive days and days without food, and some people could go about a month, so long as they had water. 

Tommy wondered. How long could he go? Would it be worth it to not eat, so that he could avoid the Weakness in the food Phil served him? He might accidentally starve to death. But is that really such a bad thing? He wouldn’t be /here/ anymore. He absentmindedly fidgeted with his scarred hand, feeling the roughness of the scar tissue on his fingers. A permanent reminder of last time he had done something dangerous and potentially life threatening. 

Tommy decided he didn’t care.

He stood from his chair and walked back to his room, leaving a confused Phil behind at the table. He ignored Phil calling his name as he shut his door and climbed into his bed, waking up a sleeping Laelaps, who slipped under the covers with him. He pulled the blankets over his head and hugged Laelaps close to his chest. 

-

Tommy didn’t come out of his room for the next meal Phil made him. Tommy only left to get a cup of water once Phil left, noticing that Phil hadn’t locked his door, and there was a bowl of cooling soup left on the table. He didn’t bother checking it.

-

Tommy was curled into a ball in his blankets, shaking as he tried to ignore the warm and prickly feeling of his body trying to remind him he was hungry and needed food, that he had skipped six meals. If his guess that Phil fed him twice a day was correct, that meant it had been roughly three days. It was getting difficult to stand and walk to get water. He didn’t think Laelaps had left the room unless he did. Phil had started leaving both his and her food just inside his room.

-

Tommy slid out of his bed, ignoring how his limbs shook with each step, and how his vision kept fading in and out of blackish static. Laelaps walked with him as he stumbled to the wall, and used it as a support to get to his door and into the hall. Was he imagining the static getting worse? Was that normal? Surely it was. Surely.

Tommy didn’t know how he had ended up on the floor, but the carpet was so soft and the heat from the fireplace in the library room was nice. He was so, so tired, as well. Laelaps was pushing her nose against him, yipping in a decidedly worried way. Why was she worried? He was fine. Just a little tired.

Was he being carried? His left side felt warm, and he thought he was moving. His arm also kept brushing against something. Was someone groaning? It sounded like him. Oh. That /was/ him. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times until the static left his vision enough to see. He was looking up at Phil. And now his head was falling to the side, or just tilting? He was being set down on something. The couch, maybe? And his back and head were getting propped up by pillows. That was nice. Maybe he could sleep for a little longer. This was more comfortable than the floor.

Someone was shaking him. How rude, he was having such a pleasant dream. It had been dark, but Wilbur was there. He opened his eyes, narrowing them against the bright light. Phil was saying something to him?

“Tommy? Toms, I need you to do something for me. Can you open your mouth?” Phil sounded scared and worried. Why? Tommy was fine. But yes, he could, so he did. Something warm and vaguely dandelion flavored was poured into his mouth, and he distantly noted the lack of spider flavor. Had he lost the ability to taste it? 

He thinks he swallowed it, because then there was more, and he noticed Phil was holding a spoon and a bowl. He also noticed he felt very, /very/ hungry. Phil was saying words of encouragement, but his voice kept fading into the background.

The soup was gone too soon, but Tommy didn’t know if he minded? He was getting tired again, but it was nicer than before. He felt warm on the inside, but not in a burning, starving, tingly way, and it was easy to drift off with Phil running his hand through Tommy’s hair like how he would when Tommy would get sick.

This was nice. This would be okay for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m running out of excuses, so hear me out.  
> Unlike what I thought, I can actually write more chapters on days I have school than days I don’t. Also I’m too lazy to wait until the weekend to post chapters, and I don’t like following schedules. So, (mostly) daily chapters! Yay!
> 
> :)


	8. The wheelchair chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dadza’s weakness potions ate Tommy’s legs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t remember if this chapter needs any trigger warnings, please tell me if it does.

Tommy was doing better and worse. On the side of sticking his hands into the fireplace and starving himself, he wasn’t doing that anymore. On the side of his mental health, physical strength, and resolve, he was suffering.

Everything had been pretty great for what he assumed was a week after he collapsed(and probably nearly died). And that was part of the problem. Phil had fed him proper food, and he had acted like the father Tommy remembered from when he was young. It was like he was a child again, but not in a bad way. It felt safe, he felt loved, and he hoped Phil had returned to how he used to be. Tommy would recover and Phil would apologize for all this craziness and take him back outside, and Tommy would let Phil keep an eye on him so that Phil could have some peace of mind and know his child was safe and happy. Tommy had been able to trust in his father again, and hope for that future he had convinced himself would happen.

But that didn’t happen. When Phil was sure Tommy wasn’t on the verge of death anymore, the spiked food came back. And Tommy wasn’t allowed to not eat it, Phil wouldn’t let Tommy fall back down that spiral again. Tommy was pretty sure the potions were getting stronger too, or maybe he was getting weaker from taking them so much. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was both.

This meant Tommy wasn’t the least bit surprised, when he ended up collapsed on the floor, unable to get up for the second time since he was brought down here. He had gotten out of bed to find he was really shaky and unsteady on his feet. This felt familiar. He had used the wall for support to get out of his room and down the hall. This felt almost like deja vu. Aand his legs had given out under him when he was trying to cross the library room to get to the armchair he liked to sit in and play ‘catch the paper ball’ with Laelaps from(she hadn’t quite gotten the hang of Fetch yet, so he’d just throw wadded up pages from empty books in the air for Laelaps to attack). Tommy really needed to stop falling.

He tried to pull himself back up to his feet, ising the bookshelf as leverage, but his legs were still refusing to support his weight. Tommy flopped back down and stared at the ceiling, resigned to his fate of waiting here until Phil came back, and Tommy could tell him what happened. But in the meantime… he was right next to one of the shelves with empty books. Books that had pages Phil wouldn’t get upset over the pages being torn out of them. Pages he could crumble into balls and throw for Laelaps.

Tommy had a lot of fun playing with Laelaps. Totally worth the three books he had completely destroyed before Phil /finally/ came down and found him.

“Daaaaaaad, heeelp! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Tommy said sarcastically, leaning back with an arm laid over his face to add to the effect. Laelaps yipped at Phil as well, as though irritated Phil hadn’t come sooner as well. That got a small smile out of Tommy.

“Toms, what happened here?” Phil asked worriedly, kneeling down to be at the same level as Tommy.

“Hell if I know, I was walking, and then I was on the floor. But if I had to guess, I’d say it was your potions that did this.” He said accusingly, glaring at Phil. “Can’t you just like, stop pouring them in my food? Or at the very least, get me something to help me get around if I’m to be stuck like this?”

“I can’t stop giving you protection. It’s not safe. And you don’t need anything, I can just carry you.”

Tommy very much didn’t like that. He flinched backwards when Phil moved towards him as though to pick him up, and picking up on Tommy’s emotions, Laelaps growled at Phil, standing in front of Tommy protectively. Tommy and Phil stared at each other, until Phil relented. “Okay, fine. I’ll look and see what I can find that you might be able to use. But in the meantime, I’m going to help you.”

That seemed to satisfy Tommy, and he leaned forward and patted Laelaps, letting her know it was okay to let Phil near him now.

-

The next week was pretty uneventful for Tommy. Phil was gone most of the time, supposedly out scouring village libraries and the such for books on people who were paralyed or too weak to walk, or things like that. This meant Tommy was left in his room or in the library room most of the time, limiting him to three activities. Playing with Laelaps, sleeping, and actually reading books. 

Tommy found he actually quite liked reading. His armchair was within arm’s reach of adventure books and books about mythology, and he could sit for hours reading about ancient legends while Laelaps slept on his lap. It was almost nice.

Phil came down into the basement after about a week, various and seemingly random items in tow. He had two big wheels, two small wheels, some metal rods, sturdy fabric that almost reminded Tommy of sheets or tent fabric, and metal pins to hold whatever Phil was going to make together. He also had a few books, and started explaining what he was making to Tommy almost immediately after he came into the basement house.

According to Phil, it was called a wheelchair, and did exactly what it sounded like it would. It was a chair that rolled around. Phil also told him about where it came from. Not surprisingly, it was from big servers like Hypixel, where the participants of games like Skywars and the Survival Games would often get injured, and quite a few people lost the ability to walk, whether it was from losing legs, or injuries to the spine or back that rendered everything below the place of injury unable to move. He also briefly talked about how a few people had specially made saddles that allowed them to ride horses without falling off, and how that was interesting, but not an option for Tommy.

Tommy thinks he fell asleep to Phil’s talking and the crackling of the fire, because a few hours later, Phil was nudging him awake, and the chair was assembled. Phil tried to pick Tommy up and put him in the chair, but Tommy insisted he could move into the chair himself. And he could, to his delight. If he perched on the edge of the armchair, and the wheelchair was close enough, he could support his own weight just long enough to shift himself over and onto the wheelchair. When he figured that out, he tried to figure out how to get it to move. He ended up having to ask Phil how, and Phil pointed out the rail things on the sides of the wheels.

It took a little while to get the hang of, but pretty quickly, he was decently able to get around.

The wheelchair scared Laelaps at first, or at least until Tommy reached down and picked her up, setting her on his lap and going in a small circle. After that, Laelaps refused to get off of Tommy’s lap, holding her head up regally, as though she were too majestic and powerful to deign to walk on the ground like normal foxes, when she could be wheeled around by Tommy. And clearly, the only opinion that really matters is Laelaps’ opinion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m posting two chapters now, and one in the morning because I really wanna introduce Techno into the story and I know a lot of you have been looking forward to it (I’m looking at you, BoredWizard)


	9. Everything is fine :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literally just filler

“Dad- /please/ can I have a normal meal for once? No potions or ‘protection’ or anything in it that isn’t supposed to be there?” Tommy asked, practically begging at this point. The fact that the last questionably normal food he had eaten was a bowl of dandelion soup was really bothering him, and spider taste was disgusting.

“Toms, it’s for your own good. Things are better this way.” Phil looked tired, like this conversation happened often. Which, to be fair, it had. Before Phil started cooking, for the past five meals, Tommy would ask if he could have unprotected food. Which Phil thought was just clearly a bad idea, but he hated the sad and resigned look that came over Tommy when he got the same answer each time he asked. Maybe… maybe just one meal would be okay. “Wait- fine. You can have food with no protection just this once, but only if you let me brush out your hair after.” Tommy’s hair was /very/ tangled up, and /very/ in need of a good brushing. To say the least, it had been bothering Phil for a while.

Tommy seemed to light up immediately at that, and agreed. “Yes, sure, just /please/-” Tommy cut himself off, too happy he was getting this. Maybe things really weren’t that bad. Philza had taken care of him when he burnt himself, he had taken care of Tommy when he had nearly died, and he had spent a long time, what had to be several days looking for something he could make that would make Tommy’s life easier when his legs had opted out of doing stuff. And now he was getting a normal meal. This really wasn’t so bad, was it? Sure, it was lonely sometimes, but he had Laelaps and the books (and his father) to keep him company when he got lonely.

Tommy savored each bite of the baked potato Phil had made him, and the normal, non-sparkly, not spidery tea Phil had made with it. It reminded him of Technoblade, and that competition he had with some random squid hybrid. That poor kid had no idea who he was going up against. Technoblade was practically a force of nature.

(Let me completely break the immersion and mention that Phil has conquered entire dimensions and rebuilt them to suit his desires before. A force of nature, however powerful, would be no match for Philza Minecraft, creator of Minecraft.)

The meal came to an end sooner than Tommy would have liked, and having to sit through having the tangles and knots brushed out of his hair without complaining was torture, but it was worth it, and it was actually quite nice to have his hair brushed, once all the tangles were gone. 

“Your hair is starting to get pretty long. It’s almost down to your shoulders now,” Phil mentioned.

“Do you think you could cut it short again?”

Phil thought about that for a moment. “I don’t want to bring sharp things down here unless your protected, it wouldn’t be safe otherwise.”

Tommy sighed, but didn’t push it. Longer hair was cool, he supposed. It made Technoblade look more intimidating, maybe he would as well(Not that there’s anyone in the basement house that would care, aside from Tommy himself). He threw the ball(Phil had brought one down for Laelaps, after Tommy had gone through ten whole books worth of paper balls) down the hall, and Laelaps chased after it. She had finally figured out Fetch, and to bring the ball back to tommy after she caught it. Tommy could always tell when she had caught it, because she would spend a good thirty seconds just standing where she had captured it, making it squeak like a dying bird, before bringing it back.

“Good girl, Laelaps!” Tommy praised the fox, petting her between her ears. Yes, this was pretty okay, Tommy thought.

Oh, how he’d regret thinking that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry, chapter ten is /much/ longer than this one, and a lot of fun stuff happens.
> 
> -Para :)


	10. Tommy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno is surprisingly nice to Tommy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the hugging and stuff is platonic. Come on, their siblings. And Tommy is a minor.

Technoblade gave a handful of emeralds to Orphan, who counted them, before handing Techno a stack of ender pearls. ‘That should be all of the trading he had to do for the day,’ he thought as he climbed the ladder out of his villager hole. He opened one of his storage chests to put the pearls away, and cringed at the random items scattered around inside it.

Technomess  
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee  
Sorting time?  
Pet Carl please

He closed his eyes and sighed, focusing on blocking out the voices, and they blended into background noise again. It was almost like babysitting; ignore the kids long enough, and they go away. But, the voices did have a point. He’d have to sort out his chests, and as he was in retirement now, he didn’t have anything better to do.

Techno emptied his chests, leaving all the supplies in a pile on the floor, then began the slow process of putting it all back away. Blaze powder over here, wood and planks over there, spare name tags and golden apples over with the blaze powder.

The whole process took quite a while to do correctly, but by late afternoon, Techno had finished sorting. He had been about to close the chests, when Phil opened the storage room door, and stepped in from outside. The feathers on his wings were fluffed out to help keep warm, and he smoothed them down after he shut the door, blocking out the cold.

“Hey, Phil,” Techno said, acknowledging his father. Phil hadn’t been around much recently, stopping by less and less frequently. Ever since Tommy disappeared, actually. Techno had only found out because he had run into Dream while gathering wood about a month or two back, and Dream had asked him if he had seen Tommy around at all. And he hadn’t, of course. When he asked how long Tommy had been missing, and found out it was right when Philza had started leaving for extended periods of time, he assumed Phil had started searching for Tommy, though something seemed off, if that was the case. Phil’s business wasn’t something Techno would pry into.

“Techno,” Phil replied, pulling something, a potion, out of his pocket. “Would you mind drinking this?” Phil handed the potion to Techno, who gave it a suspicious look. Unlike Tommy, he wasn’t quick to trust, even when it came to his own father. 

“What is it?” Techno asked. No offense to Phil, but it looked… very, very sketchy. The kind of thing you would buy in a back alley that the seller would claim could kill your enemies with less than a drop.

“It’s a potion.” Philza said, rather unhelpfully.

Susza  
NO DONT DRINK IT  
Shimmery i wanna touch it  
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Techno winced at the sudden screeching, and motioned vaguely at his head. “Sorry, voices loud- just a moment.”

Distracted as he was by the voices and trying to tune them out, he didn’t actually know /how/ he had ended up falling backwards and hitting his head on the edge of the opened chest, the side of the boar skull mask also catching, falling off and clattering to the side. Or maybe Phil had taken it off of him, he was admittedly a little too busy blinking static out of his vision. He probably got a concussion from that.

When his vision was clear enough to see again, Phil was kneeling next to him and uncorking the potion. Techno tried to sit up, but Phil pushed him back down to the floor and leaned over him. He went to ask Phil what he was doing, but then Philza was pouring the potion into Techno’s mouth, then covered it as well as his nose so he couldn’t breathe until he swallowed it. Whatever it was, it tasted extremely bitter, and he swallowed it reflexively.

When Phil was sure he had swallowed it, he stood up and left the cabin, leaving the door open this time. As techno rolled onto his side and coughed up some of the potion he had accidentally breathed in, he thought he could hear Phil doing something. He didn’t think about it long, because he apparently had bigger problems. Problems like losing feeling in his limbs. That couldn’t be good. And everything was getting muffled and blurry. The last thing he was able to see before going unconscious was Phil coming back in, and presumably wrapping Techno up in something, because red fabric was pulled over his face.

-

Tommy heard a lot of loud thumping on the other side of the trap door. What was Phil doing? It almost sounded like he was trying to bring down another table or something. Or he was setting down something heavy in general. He didn’t have to wait long to find out what it was, though. Or, more accurately, who it was.

Technoblade was wrapped up in his cloak, and bandages were wound tightly around his head. 

“What did you do to him?” Tommy asked, unable to hide the panic and slight fear in his voice. His brother was the /blood god/. Unkillable, impossible to defeat. And here he was, unconscious and wrapped up like a fucking burrito. In Phil’s basement. How strong was Phil really, to be able to take down a god and come out unscathed?

“The bandages? He tripped and hit his head.” Phil said, like that was something that happened to Techno a lot. “He should be waking up soon, I have to go get something ready.” And with that, Phil left, and Tommy heard the shifting of chains and the snapping of the padlock. He hadn’t locked the trap door since Tommy lost the ability to walk.

What was Tommy supposed to do now? Just wait for Techno to wake up? He supposed so. It wasn’t like he had magic like Bad, who could probably wake Techno up right now if he was here and felt like it. The most he could do was wait, and check on Techno every once in a while to make sure he hadn’t died or anything.

Laelaps padded in from the kitchen, where Phil left her food and water dishes. She seemed surprised at Techno’s presence, he was new. She had never seen any humans before aside from Tommy and Phil. She seemed to hesitate, deciding whether he was a threat or not, then ran right up to the couch, and jumped onto Techno.

“Nooooo Laelaps, thats not a good idea!” Tommy exclaimed, leaning forward and scooping her up and off of his brother. “Here, sit on my lap instead, and I’ll tell you a story about uhm… your name!”

That seemed to interest Laelaps, as she stopped trying to get back to her spot on the Techno burrito.

“Lets see, uh, how did it start? Oh! I remember. There was this ancient greek city called Thebes, and the people there committed some horrible national crime, so one of the gods, Dionysus, sicced a giant fox on the town to eat all the children. They called her the Teumessian Fox, or the Cadmean Vixen.

The regent, or leader of the city, was this guy called Creon. He really didn’t want all the children in his city to die, so he found some other guy, Amphitryon, and made him find a solution to the problem. I think he killed his wife or something, and if he got rid of the fox, he would be forgiven.

Now Amphitryon had the brilliant idea to borrow his cousin’s(?) dog, Laelaps, who had been a gift from the gods, and destined to catch everything he was set after. And so he told Laelaps to catch the fox, and Laelaps set off to hunt the vixen down.

But the vixen wasn’t just any normal child eating fox. She was destined to be impossible to catch, and having Laelaps sent off to hunt her meant a paradox had been created. The paradox perplexed Zeus, the king of the gods, and so in order to stop it, he turned both the dog and fox into stone, and cast them into the sky. Now, they are the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor.”

Just as Tommy finished telling the story to Laelaps, Techno started waking up. Tommy heard a pained groan, and looked over to see Techno wincing in presumed pain, opening his eyes a moment later. Tommy waited for his brother to take in where he was, and to notice Tommy. He could tell exactly when Technoblade realized he wasn’t wherever he had been when Phil took him, and when he noticed Tommy. It was strange, he didn’t know when the last time he had seen Techno with his mask off was, the last time he had seen his brother’s eyes. They almost seemed to have gotten more otherworldly and strange, completely black aside from the silvery white ring of his irises.

“Tommy?” Techno’s voice sounded raspy, like he hadn’t spoken in months, or had drank acid. For all Tommy knew, that could have been exactly what happened.

“It took you long enough to wake up,” Tommy said, giving Techno a half smile.

“Where am I, and where have you been? It's been almost five months, and apparently even /Dream’s/ worried about you.” He sat up, wiggling his arms out of the cloak burrito so he could unwrap himself, then get a better look at what was around him.

“Well, to answer the first question, we’re in Philza’s basement. Probably. I wasn’t exactly conscious when I came down here, and the two times I managed to see past the trap door, all I could see was stone brick hallways, so we’re probably in a base somewhere. And to answer your second question, I’ve been here. Anything else you want to know?”

Having thoroughly taken in the room, Techno turned his focus on Tommy, noting each detail. “Yes, actually. Did Phil kidnap us? And why are you in a wheelchair? I haven’t seen one of those since I was in Hypixel. And there’s a fox on your lap.”

“Phil drugged my tea when I came over for a visit, and I assume something similar happened to you, though you seem to have tried to fight back. He said you slipped and hit your head, but I doubt that. I’m in a wheelchair because my legs decided they don’t want to work anymore. Pretty sure that all those hours I spent basically paralyzed after meals and the general lack of active things to do down here caused my muscles to deteriorate or something. I read a book a while back that was about injuries and stuff, I think it said stuff like that happens. And this is Laelaps! She’s my pet fox, and my best friend!”

Tommy was starting to worry Techno, among the other things he should be worrying about. Tommy had been essentially alone down here for four and a half months with nobody but Phil and a fox? That couldn’t be good for his mental health. Tommy was one of those people who needed social interaction, unlike Techno, who was fine living alone and away from society. And he seemed so… fragile. Like he was precariously balanced on a sword’s edge, always one slip away from either a full on breakdown, or becoming even more of a shell of his former self. This anxious kid wasn’t the same person who had fought Techno in a hastily dug out pit under Pogtopia to avenge his best friend’s death, or the young man he had warned against being a hero. 

Techno didn’t know exactly what he did- maybe it was the prolonged silence, or how Techno had been staring at him, but Tommy’s anxiously confident expression fell, and he pulled Laelaps closer to hide his face in her fur. It didn’t help much, and he knew Techno could hear his muffled sobs, because he heard him get off the couch and kneel in front of tommy, then Techno was holding one of Tommy’s hands(the scarred one, but even though he stared at it before looking at Tommy, he didn’t ask about it. Tommy didn’t want to talk about it), and he was gently pushing Tommy’s other arm down, so he wasn’t hiding behind Laelaps.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. If you need to, you can tell me anything that you want to, but I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to.” Tommy’s breathing hitched, and he took a few minutes to calm down to the point where he could speak clearly.

“All the food is laced with weakness potions, and the only times I’ve had normal food was after I almost starved myself to death, and when I begged Phil for something normal to eat, and he made me sit with him after, and it felt so much like when I was a kid. Each time I wake up, it’s harder and harder to remember I’m here against my will, and I’m /not fine/ and I just want to go /home/ and sleep in my own bed and listen to Tubbo talk about bees and get yelled at by Bad for swearing in front of him. I’ve been here and like this so long that its normal to wake up and have to get around using this wheelchair, and I don’t know how much longer I can take this before I lose myself completely or just give in to Phil. I’m so scared, Techy. Now you’re trapped here with me, and you were the only person I really thought could find me and save me, but not now, not /ever/-”

Tommy was cut off by his own sobs, and he practically fell off of the wheelchair as he lurched forward and wrapped his arms around Techno, tears seeping into his brother’s signature dress shirt. Techno hesitantly wrapped an arm around Tommy, and held Tommy’s head closer, his fingers tangling in his younger brother’s wavy blond hair.

“It’s okay to be afraid,” Techno whispered to Tommy. “You’ve been through some horrible and fucked up shit. But I’m here, I’ll protect you. Okay? Just like I used to.” Tommy’s crying slowed, but he gripped Techno tighter. Like if he didn’t, Techno would vanish. “I’m going to move us to the couch, okay?”

Tommy nodded, and Techno adjusted his grip so that when he stood up, he was carrying his brother, and he half stumbled over to sit on the couch. It pained him to see how Tommy tensed as Techno’s grip tightened, and how his legs dangled uselessly while Techno held him. Again, he thought about how different Tommy was from the last time he had seen him.

He didn’t know exactly when it had happened, but Tommy’s crying had slowed until it stopped completely, and Techno realized Tommy had fallen asleep. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do now, but his head still hurt from getting slammed into the edge of a chest, and the clinging remnants of the potion in his system made him tired as well. He adjusted Tommy’s position so that he was laying down, then slowly laid back as well, arms wrapped around his brother. He had let go of him and the rest of his family once, and now Wilbur was dead, Phil had gone insane or some shit, and Tommy was so very not okay. Techno wouldn’t let it happen again. He chose not to think long on how he might not be able to do anything to protect Tommy, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you all like it?  
> :)


	11. Following Phil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Technorug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

Tubbo stared down into the water underneath New L’manburg, anxiously tapping his fingers against the railing as he watched the fish swim below him. When Tommy hadn’t returned by the third week, Tubbo began sending out search parties, though none of them were successful. He wished he had noticed something was wrong sooner, he might have been able to save Tommy from… whatever had happened. At least they had found out that Phil had lied about the mansions, though. That was pretty much their only lead.

  
  


Philza had to know something, but nobody had seen him since just after Tommy had gone missing. Aside from Technoblade, according to Dream, who had ran into him a while ago. Dream had told Tubbo that Technoblade hadn’t known Tommy was missing(not surprising, it wasn’t like the piglin hybrid dropped by L’manburg on a regular basis or anything), so they decided to focus their searches for both Philza and Tommy around the snowy taiga and tundra they had found Techno in. That meant they couldn’t send any L’manburgians out to search, though. They didn’t want to test Techno by swarming around where they assumed his home was. 

  
  


Instead, only Dream and Badboyhalo went out, Bad occasionally swapping out with Sam if he was needed in the Badlands. And speak of the (quite literal) devil, he could hear Bad’s voice, and… was that Dream? He hadn’t seen Dream since he returned to inform Tubbo of running into Techno. Which meant…

  
  


Tubbo speed walked towards the voices, interrupting the vaguely catlike demon’s greeting in favor of asking Dream, “There’s news?”

  
  


“Yes, We spotted Philza, but we lost him in a forest. We found something else though, and we both think it’s important enough that you need to see it.”

  
  


“What about Technoblade? And I’ll have to find my cabinet-” Bad interrupted Tubbo, placing an inky, clawed hand on his shoulder. 

  
  


“Technoblade is- He’s not a problem anymore. And there’s no time, Phil might go back to the place we found, and we might be able to catch him if he does, and we get there soon enough.” Bad’s expression was sad, and if it were possible, he guessed Bad’s glowing flashlight eyes would have been dull.

  
  


Tubbo inhaled sharply, thinking the worst might have happened, no matter how unlikely it was. But if Tommy had… lost his last life, then why would they still be looking for Phil? Dream had begun walking back the way he came, and Bad gently led Tommy after him. “I’ll explain what happened when we get where we’re going. It’ll be easier that way. It’s okay though, Tommy still might be alive.”

  
  


The boat ride over to the snow biome was slow and cold, And the walk to what turned out to be a quaint little cabin was even slower and even colder, due to the snow dunes and, well, the snow. 

  
  


Tubbo recognized Carl, Techno’s prized horse in the stall out front, and Tubbo felt a wave of anxiety rise up. If Carl was here, then so was Techno, the man responsible for one of his deaths, and helped Wilbur destroy L’manburg. 

  
  


“We had been searching the forest over to the right of this cabin, and Dream and I saw Phil carrying a red rug or something. We tried to follow him, but he just kind of vanished. We were able to follow the footprints he left in the snow back to here though, and well… things aren’t looking too good for Techno, to say the least.” Bad explained as Dream walked up to the door next to Carl’s stall, and opened it.

  
  


Tubbo hesitantly walked in, half expecting to see Technoblade’s dead body on the ground, or his head on a stick or something equally gory and gruesome. What he actually saw was actually pretty tame in comparison. There was a small puddle of smeared blood that was just starting to get tacky in the middle, a small amount of some unknown grayish liquid splattered on the ground near the blood, like someone had coughed it up, and there was blood and strands of long, pink hair caught on the edge of one of many open chests that looked freshly organized.

  
  


“O- oh. That was… not what I was expecting. At all.” Tubbo said, his voice quiet with shock. 

  
  


Dream picked something up off the ground, as well as pointed to something hung up on a hook in the wall. He had picked up Techno’s boar skull mask, something Techno seemed to never take off, and the hook on the wall had his crown hanging from it, as well as a shred of thick red fabric. “I think Philza attacked Techno, and either killed him, or Techno managed to escape. I didn’t see any footprints outside aside from the ones we followed from Phil though, so it seems pretty unlikely he made it out alive.”

  
  


Dream sounded almost sad about the presumed death of his rival, which surprised Tubbo. He would have thought that Dream would be glad his enemy was probably dead. But then again, Dream cared about Tommy enough to spend months out in the cold and snow, searching for him. Dream claimed it was only because he wanted to be the one to finally kill Tommy, but Tubbo suspected Dream actually had more of a heart than anyone thought, and he was willing to admit. 

  
  


Tubbo walked over to the crown and torn fabric, pulling the fabric off of the hook. A thought struck him. “You said Phil was carrying a red rug or something, right? What did it look like, exactly?”

  
  


“Well, it was red, and had white trim. There was also something pink coming out of one end, because he had it rolled up-” Bad broke off as he realized what Tubbo suspected happened. “You think it was Technoblade’s cape, and you think Techno was wrapped up in it?”

  
  


“Him, or his body. I don’t think there’s enough blood here for him to have been killed, but then there’s more ways than stabbing to kill somebody, and we don’t know what that gray stuff is.” Tubbo looked out the door, to where Phil’s footprints were still visible, then to Bad and Dream. “Hey, can’t you do tracking magic? You two and George, Sapnap, and Antfrost would do that hunting game thing, and you would bind compasses to Dream so you could track him. Why don’t you just do that to Phil, or Tommy, for that matter?”

  
  


“That’s not exactly how magic works here. And I would need Tommy or Phil here in person to do that, and if we did have them here, then we wouldn’t need tracking compasses. And on top of that, we held those games in places where my magic worked under different rules. We could still try and find Phil’s path again, though. He might have pearled away, and I should be able to find where he went if he did.” Bad suggested, to which Dream and Tubbo agreed. They walked through the woods, following Phil’s path, and soon reached where his footprints just ended.

  
  


Bad asked for them to stand back so as to not interfere with whatever Bad was about to do. Tubbo was half expecting some elaborate blood ritual or something, but Bad just pulled out an ender pearl, did a hand motion over it, then whispered something. He then threw the pearl into the air, where it exploded like an eye of ender, and then Bad waited. After about ten seconds, black tinged purple particles began fading into existence in the air. There was a cluster of them right where the footprints ended, and then an arc cutting through the air and deeper into the forest. 

  
  


“Ender pearls have their own kind of magic, and leave behind an imprint, just like all magic does. What I just did was essentially filling the imprints left behind with my own magic, allowing us to see where the pearl, and thus Phil and Techno went.” Bad explained as they followed the path. Dream didn’t seem too interested, and Tubbo assumed Bad had explained it to Dream sometime in the past.

  
  


The magic trail led them right to another set of prints in the snow, these leading right up to a strange indentation in a stone cliff. It was quite clearly some kind of piston door, and probably led to a base or something.

  
  


“We shouldn’t go in yet.” Dream stated, turning to stare at Tubbo with that creepily simple mask of his.

  
  


“Why not?” Tubbo asked, surprised. This was what they had been looking for. What was stopping them from charging in and saving Tommy?

  
  


“We don’t have the proper supplies, and Phil is in there right now. We’ll want to go in when he’s gone, and we’re unprepared for any traps he might have set up. We’ll prepare, and look around in there when Phil leaves again.” Tubbo didn’t like that Dream’s reasoning made sense, and he couldn’t argue.

  
  


“Okay, fine. But we have to go in soon. It’s almost been five months, and we don’t know what kind of state Tommy is in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any of you catch Ranboo’s stream today? It really was something, wasn’t it?  
> I have a theory if any of you wanna hear it-  
> 👑  
> :)
> 
> -Para


	12. You can’t come out until I’m sure its safe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil feeds Techno drugs, and Tommy spends the whole chapter crying.

Technoblade woke up to someone lifting his arm and pulling the (absurdly long) pillow he was hugging away. He muttered something along the lines of “Don’t take my pillow”, and pulled it closer.  _ And then, the pillow hugged him back. _ Now, that got Techno to open his eyes to see Phil’s basement, Tommy still curled up against his chest, and Phil himself trying to take Tommy away again. The events of the presumed previous day (it hadn’t been a whole day yet, Techno had only been gone for about ten hours) came back to him, and he glared at Phil.

  
  


Having noticed by now that Techno was awake, Philza used more force to get his son to let go of Tommy, and managed to pick him up. That got Tommy to wake up as well, and immediately start screaming and trying to get away from Phil, but his efforts had no effect. Phil started walking down the hall.

  
  


Now, there was no way Techno was just going to  _ let  _ phil take Tommy away, who was crying and pleading with Phil and sounded so scared and terrified  _ and so different from the brother he remembered _ , so he pulled himself off the couch and stood. He went to go after Phil, but the fast movement disoriented him and caused him to fall to his hands and knees. That  _ never  _ happened. He got an explanation as soon as Phil heard him fall.

  
  


“I’ve figured out how to delay the effects of potions. You should be experiencing weakness, fatigue, and mild nausea now. But don’t worry, it’ll wear off in about three minutes.” What Phil said was true. Now that he had been awake for a short time, his limbs were starting to feel shaky and weighed down, and his vision was rippling like he was looking at the world through a sheet of disturbed water. When he looked up from the floor, he blurrily saw Tommy looking back at him over Phil’s shoulder, before they both disappeared into a room just off of the hall. The potions did nothing to his hearing, so he was able to hear Phil talk in a sickeningly sweet tone over Tommy’s mumbled pleas to let Techno be and to not do anything to him. “Shhh, it’s okay, Tommy. I’m sorry, but you can’t come out until I’m sure it’s safe.”

  
  


It took an uncomfortably long few seconds for Techno to process Philza’s words over the panicked thoughts racing through his head.  _ Phil doesn’t think Tommy is safe outside of his room. Phil’s going to do something to make it safe. What’s the danger? Where’s the danger?  _

  
  


_ It’s me. _

  
  


As soon as Techno realized Phil was going to do something to him, he pushed himself up and off the ground, trying to force his body to work, even when he could barely see anything. And it was a pathetic attempt to try and escape Phil. He didn’t even make it two steps backwards before his foot hit the couch, and unbalanced as he already was, he ended up falling back into it. Even though he couldn’t see straight, and he was too weak to fight Phil, he still struggled and did his best to avoid the potion Phil was holding carefully. Like all his other attempts, they only slowed Phil a little, and in the end, did nothing to stop him.

  
  


With one hand, Phil forced Techno to tilt his head back, and to open his mouth. He then poured the potion into Techno’s mouth, and forced him to swallow it in a similar way to how he got him to drink the first potion, back at the cabin and several hours earlier.

  
  


As Techno’s sight slowly returned to normal as the three minutes Phil had told him it would take for the nausea to wear off passed, but now, thanks to the new potion Phil had forced him to drink took effect, he started to notice new things happening to him. He felt too hot and too cold and like his head was filled with cotton that slowed his thoughts, and the colors were all wrong. It was almost like someone had taken all the blue out of things, leaving him with everything painted in green, yellow, and orangish red. And not much longer after that, all his worry and panic and fear for Tommy drained away. In its place, he felt contentment. Happiness. Euphoria at just  _ being, _ no longer weighed down by things like bad memories (or most memories in general), or normal thoughts that didn’t slip away from him the moment he tried to pin them down.

  
  


-

  
  


Tommy, in his terror fueled panic, managed to pull himself off of his bed and onto the floor, and from there he managed to drag himself to the door. He couldn’t stop his crying from becoming more and more desperate and sad. He listened through the door as he heard what he assumed was Techno falling, and then the sounds of struggling, choking, muffled coughing, and then, almost worse than what he'd heard before it, Tommy heard silence. 

  
  


He ignored Laelaps as she tried to get him to notice her, tell her he’s okay, and instead pulled his legs close so he could curl into a tiny ball on the floor. He didn’t say anything to Phil when he picked him up (Tommy knew it was Phil without opening his eyes because Phil smelled like campfires in summer and earth and the wind over fields, whereas Technoblade smelled like blood and ice and snow and baked potatoes), only flinching at the touch. He opened his eyes when Phil set him down on the couch, and immediately pulled himself over towards Techno, who was looking at him with unfocused eyes, and the expression on his face reminded Tommy of Quackity when he got ahold of drugs, and was overall too happy for Technoblade to be normal.

  
  


Even though Phil hadn’t physically hurt Techno too much, he could see the bruises on his brother’s jaw from where Phil had gripped Techno to hold him still, and it made Tommy want to cry all over again. He hugged his (high out of his mind) brother, noticing how he didn’t hug him back for several seconds, and then gave in and started crying again, now much quieter and sad than before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who got stung by a bee, nearly passed out, and then based Techno’s hallucination sight whatever you call it off of how their own sight got weird?   
> This author did :)
> 
> Also, did you know the way Phil forced Techno to drink the potion is apparently called Grappling? Sounds like scaling a building, not force feeding someone suspicious potions.
> 
> Also also my search history is so weird because of this fic.  
> Fbi, I promise I’m not going to commit a murder or perform water torture on anyone, I’m just doing the bare minimum of research to make my fanfic slightly more realistic :’)


	13. No.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five months have passed since Tommy got kidnapped. Techno hasn’t been both aware and around Tommy at the same time in two weeks. Phil has made sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

Tommy looked up from his book to see a tired and haunted-looking Techno standing in the hallway, his eyes flicking around the library room before settling on Tommy.

  
  


“Is he gone?” Techno rasped, clearly not trusting his own senses or sight. Tommy realized the potion must have worn off, and that’s why he wasn’t acting like a sentient coat rack, or a confused child stuck in the body of a 21 year old piglin hybrid. 

  
  


“He left a while ago.” Tommy hesitated, setting the book he was reading down on his lap, resting against Laelaps. “You’re you? Not high anymore?” He needed the confirmation.

  
  


“Yes. End, that was terrible.” Techno was shielding his eyes from the lantern light.

  
  


“Uh- do you want to go to a different room? It’s pretty bright in here.” Tommy suggested, and Techno nodded, briefly giving Tommy a thankful half smile. He woke up Laelaps, moving her and the book off of his lap, and then moved to his chair. Laelaps immediately hopped over to settle onto his lap again(She never left him, aside from when Phil put out her food, or she got thirsty). Tommy wheeled himself over to the hallway, then to Techno’s room.

  
  


Techno sat on the edge of the bed, and Tommy pulled himself onto it as well, and leaned into the warmth of his brother.

  
  


“Do you think we could escape someday?” Tommy asked, almost whispering. “Maybe not today, but eventually.”

  
  


Techno scoffed, though it sounded sad. “Escape? No. Not unless a miracle happens. You can’t stand, much less run through the base you say is outside the door. And I doubt I could run and carry you very long, after being on who knows what for what I can only assume has been a week or two. Even if we did somehow manage to get out of here and the base, where would we go? Best case scenario, we’re somewhere nearby the SMP, and we happen to wander in that direction. Sure, they might not kill you, but I participated in destroying a country, and wouldn’t be surprised if I’m to be killed on sight. They might also think  _ I  _ was the one who kidnapped you, and that could also probably get me killed. In the much more likely scenario, we’re out in the middle of nowhere, we can’t find our way back to the SMP or anyone who can keep Phil away from us, and Phil finds us and brings us back with even more safeguards and ‘protection’. He might make sure I’m  _ never  _ myself anymore, or tie me to my bed or something. He also might take away your wheelchair so you can’t get around  _ at all _ on your own.”

  
  


What Techno was saying had a point. It was not what Tommy had wanted to hear, but he was glad Techno wouldn’t lie to him. (Everything Phil said sounded like a lie.) He supposed he had started to tear up again, on the verge of crying again, because Techno reached over and hugged him.

  
  


“Hey, it’s okay. You never know. We might get rescued. It’s not impossible.” Techno reached for something else to say for a moment, before his eyes met Laelaps’ dark blue and yellow eyes. “You’ve never properly introduced me to Laelaps. Mind telling me about her?”

  
  


Tommy immediately brightened up. “Yea! Laelaps is a snow fox Da- Phil brought home after I yelled at him about how I need friends to be happy. I remembered when you told me the legend about Laelaps and the Teumessian Fox, and it just seemed to fit. Also, she has weird eyes like you. They are heterochromatic! Apparently it’s not that uncommon in snow foxes. Her favorite game is fetch, and she also likes attacking Phil’s wings. I think she thinks he’s some kind of giant chicken or something. Phil doesn’t do anything to her though, just tries to keep his wings out of her grasp. She has a whole pile of Phil’s feathers under my bed, but unfortunately, I don’t think any of them are primaries. She also likes your hair i think, there’s been a few times when I’ve caught her trying to eat it-”

  
  


Tommy broke off when he looked up to see Philza standing in the doorway, and his sudden silence caused Techno to also look over and see him. They must have been so distracted that they didn’t hear him unlock the trap door and come down. Techno subtly adjusted his position so that Tommy was safely behind him. Phil looked surprised that Tommy was in the room with Techno, but he just shook his head.

  
  


“Techno, son, please make this easy and just drink the potion on your own this time.” Phil asked, his expression pleading and sad.

  
  


“No. I won’t.” Techno replied, standing up from the bed. As soon as he pulled himself out of Tommy’s grasp, Tommy unfroze, and inhaled sharply.

  
  


“Dad, please don’t, please leave him alone. He won’t hurt me or himself, and it’s terrible to see him like that, please, just please no-” Tommy started pleading with Phil, but though he gave Tommy a sad look, he still pulled the potion out of his pocket and approached Techno.

  
  


Techno attempted to shove Phil away from him, but Phil just stepped back, then took advantage of how Techno was put off balance to pin him to the wall and then force him to kneel. Techno kept struggling, but his attempts were quite pitiful, and they grew weaker the longer he tried to avoid drinking the potion.

  
  


Pretty quickly though, Phil managed to uncork the potion and get Techno to drink it, Tommy watching in horror over Phil’s shoulders. Phil stepped back, and Techno slumped back against the wall. His fingers curled into the carpet, but their grasp loosened as his eyes became unfocused and his breathing slowed. As Tommy watched, he couldn’t help but think that Techno looked a lot happier and calmer than he had been for years, and he wondered if whatever Techno was experiencing right now was better than being  _ aware  _ of what was happening to him in the real world, if it was easier to not think and not remember.

  
  


Phil turned to Tommy, and began to explain to him. “Tommy, Techno’s better like this. He’s too volatile and dangerous when he isn’t on potions, and it’s too expensive materials-wise to do weakness potions like I do for you.”

  
  


Tommy wasn’t taking that for an answer. “You aren’t making him  _ safer _ or  _ less dangerous _ to be around, and you certainly aren’t doing any of this to protect me! You're just making it easier to keep us trapped here, and then using the side effects of what you do to us as excuses to keep us here! I’m only too weak to walk because  _ you _ literally put weakness potions and who knows what else into my food! Techno is unable to fight and take care of himself because  _ you _ force him to take potions that make him too high to think, much less process what’s around him or that what you're doing to him is wrong! We’re going to die down here, sad and alone aside from each other, and separated from the outside world and our friends. And it’s going to be  _ your fault. We’re going to die, and there’ll be nobody to blame but you. _ ”

  
  


Something in Phil snapped, and for the first time since Wilbur died, Phil raised his voice at Tommy. “No! You're not going to die. I won’t let you. I can’t lose either of you, not after Wil. Neither of you can get hurt. Ever. You just don’t understand it yet. I’ve fixed Techno. He can’t get hurt like this. He’s safe. And it hurts to see him like this, but things are _better._ _Things are better like this, and so I’m keeping it this way. You’ll see my way someday, and know I did the right thing._ ”

  
  


Phil abruptly left after that, leaving Tommy essentially alone in the room, as Techno wasn’t exactly present in any meaningful way. Still, Tommy ended up falling asleep curled up against his brother, having pulled himself off of the bed, and dragging himself over to Techno’s corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ringing bells in the fields, flowers in the glaciers  
> Have you had glacier freeze gatorade  
> I have paintbrushes on my ceiling
> 
> No i’m not high or anything, its just 12:44 am and I’m both tired and too awake to sleep and these are the kinds of thoughts I have on a daily basis. They make no sense, even to me. Why I wrote some down in the end notes? It sounded funny. 
> 
> -Para :)


	14. I don’t know how much longer I can live like this

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy is having a hard time pogging through the pain, and Techno is (mostly) unable to comfort him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw/cw: talking about suicide, past attempts, and trying again, self harm, and a lot of talking about death in general
> 
> Today’s chapter is pretty heavy

Tommy sighed as Philza climbed out of the trap door, locking it behind him. Things had been tense between him and his father since the whole ‘watching Phil force feed Techno mystery potions’ thing, and though it could get annoying, he still preferred babysitting Technohigh to being around Phil. At least right now, he wasn’t trying to persuade Techno to not touch the hot grate separating him from the fire, or from taking all of the  _ The Art of War _ copies, and hiding them in his room. No, Techno was too busy trying to braid Tommy’s (now just longer than his shoulders) hair.

  
  


It was nice, and reminded Tommy of when he and Techno were younger, and Tommy would pester and annoy Techno until he agreed to do Tommy’s hair. Back then, Tommy had grown out his hair like how Techno had, because he had thought it made him look more intimidating, like his brother. It hadn’t been nearly as long as Techno’s hair, actually probably only a little longer than it was now. He had cut it short after Techno left home to go to Hypixel and make a name for himself.

  
  


“Techno, I don’t know how long I can live like this. It’s only a matter of time until I can’t take it anymore and find a way to kill myself, or I just stop living in any real or meaningful way, or I break and can’t tell this is terrible.” Tommy paused, waiting for Techno to tell him off for being stupid and that he shouldn’t even be considering that, that they’ll probably be okay, but Techno only started on another braid.

  
  


Tommy lifted up his scarred hand, looking at the twists and splotches of where the flames of the fire had burned him too badly to properly heal. “I know you saw the scars when you first got here. For a while after I was down here, I’d… do a little more than just consider killing myself, but one day I went too far, and Phil put a new grate on the fireplace, with closer bars so I couldn’t do that anymore. I really came close to just letting myself burn, though. And… it scares me, but I think I would do it again. Maybe you were right about me being Theseus. But I’m not a hero, I’m hardly even my own at this point. Neither of us are.”

  
  


“I feel so guilty even considering suicide again and dying just to get out of here, when I would be leaving you alone here, and you aren’t even able to choose to do the same. Hell, you probably wouldn’t even be able to notice I was gone. And I know you aren’t fighting the potions anymore, but I honestly don’t blame you. It’s fucking terrible to know what’s happening to us, and I can see how tense and paranoid you get when you aren’t under it’s influence. Maybe you were always like that though, and I never noticed it until now, when I spend a lot more time with absurdly happy and calm Technohigh than the actual Technoblade.

  
  


I’m mostly just happy that I’m not alone here with all of Phil’s obsession turned on me solely anymore, though I hate that it means you get put mostly unwillingly into a drug induced semi-catatonic state for days on end without a break, and then when you are allowed a few hours to be yourself, your plagued by huge gaps in your memory.”

  
  


Only now does Tommy notice that the gentle tugging of Techno braiding his hair has stopped, and he starts to turn to check on Techno, but he’s stopped by Techno pulling him into a hug.

  
  


“I’d never blame you for wantin’ a friend,'' Techno mumbled, his voice slurred from the effects of the potion, which has clearly worn off enough by now for Techno to be at least partially aware of what Tommy was saying, and what it meant. “None of this ‘s your fault, y’ can’t control other people’s actions. An’ I wouldn’t want you alone down here anyway.”

  
  


Tommy smiled weakly, even though he knew Techno couldn’t see it. “Thanks, Techno. It’s good to know that.”

  
  


Tommy couldn’t help the tiny spark of hope and general ‘I can survive this for just a little longer’ that flickered to life at Techno’s words, but with it came the odd sense that something big was going to happen soon. Whether it would be good or bad waited to be seen, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Shorter than my chapters usually are, but thats okay. The next chapter should be longer, and even if it isn’t, some stuff goes down, so it should be pretty interesting :)
> 
> My spotify writing playlist is so random  
> Theres like, no overall theme to it or anything, its just a ton of songs I like. So one moment I might be listening to November 16th by Kanaya (check them out, their music is pog), and then right after, a song like Turn the Lights Off or Dear Fellow Traveller will start playing, and the tones of the songs are completely different.


	15. How long has it been; How long will you take?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream finishes counting every single pine needle in the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dont think this chapter needs cw/tws, but if any of you see things that would qualify, tell me, and I’d be happy to add warnings.

Dream was half asleep in the tree he was monitoring the secret door from, watching snowflakes lazily drift down, and a snow fox chase after a rabbit. With the moonlight shining down through holes in the clouds on the falling snow, and the peaceful scene he was looking down to, he was almost distracted enough to miss some of the smooth rock at the bottom of the cliff silently slide apart, briefly revealing stone halls before Phil stepped out, and the door slid back shut.

  
  


He stiffened, careful to not shake the tree branch he was perched on, as he watched the winged figure walk into the forest. He waited several minutes, until he heard the sound of wings and wind, and then a few more minutes after he saw the silhouette of a person and wide ebony wings flying away against the clouds. 

  
  


As soon as Dream was sure Philza was gone, he rose from his perch, and ran from tree to tree back to the small camp he had set up with Bad and Tubbo. There was no time to get more people to do a more thorough and safe search of the base, and they didn’t have masks to protect against Phil’s notoriously well made potions like Sam did, but they could make do. Dream reached the camp, sliding down the tree to a hollow made by the roots of said tree, and a few boulders.

  
  


Dream shook Bad awake, careful to not wake Tubbo, who was laying next to Bad under a small mound of blankets. Bad woke quickly, and Dream raised a pointer finger to his lips to tell Bad to stay quiet, then motioned for him to follow Dream out of the hollow after Dream had picked up the few supplies they would need. As soon as they were out of earshot of the sleeping goat hybrid, Dream told Bad what was going on. 

  
  


“I just watched Phil leave. I don’t want to take Tubbo down because we don’t know what we’ll find down there, and he would be a liability to get back out if he were distraught over finding Tommy dead.” Dream told Bad bluntly. He didn’t think Tommy and Techno were still alive, but if they were… they couldn’t be in any good state of mind. Tommy must have been gone for around six months(Tubbo would know, he’s counted each day), and Techno had been gone for one. It was unlikely, to say the least, that even Phil could keep Techno down for long, without having the element of surprise, and that must have passed a long time ago. 

  
  


Bad nodded in understanding, taking a moment to activate a simple spell he had set up a while ago. It would alert Bad if anyone entered a perimeter that stretched about two miles out from where the cliff door was located, and that would be more than enough time for Bad and Dream to escape before Philza came back and caught them in his base. But after that, they approached the door and figured out how to open it. They stepped in, the stone sliding shut behind them, effectively sealing them into the long stone brick hallway they were in.

  
  


It didn’t take them long to run into the first trap. Dream had snapped a tripwire, and Bad, with his enhanced hearing, realized what was happening, and threw himself and Dream to the floor. Unlike what they were expecting though, the potions dropped back where they were coming from, as though they were built to keep people in, instead of keeping people out.

  
  


Realizing what that meant, Dream and Bad shared a look. Techno and Tommy, or one of them at least, was probably still alive. They picked up their pace, searching each of the five levels of the base for any sign of the brothers. Although there was a lot of supplies stored away, and a startlingly large floor seemingly dedicated completely to potion brewing, there seemed to be no trace of either sibling.

  
  


Frustrated, Dream kicked at a chain at the end of one of the last hallways they hadn’t checked yet, filled with shelves of neatly organized items, and was surprised when the stretch of chain links and a padlock caught, causing him to stumble and almost trip. Alerted by the sound, Bad hurried over, and they both inspected the links of the chain that had looked like they had fallen off a shelf at first. They quickly noticed that one side of the chain was secured to a square of stone flooring that was hinged, and looked like it could swing up, but the chains held it down.

  
  


Bad and Dream shared another look, then started scouring the shelves for a key. Luckily for them, Phil had left it behind, and they hurriedly unlocked the padlock, and Bad hesitantly opened the trap door.

  
  


It seemed to lead down into a nice little library sitting room dining room hybrid, and when Bad dropped down into it, he could see there was a kitchen directly across from the ladder, and then to the right of that, a hallway with four doors. There was also the sound of… was that crying? Had he and Dream really found them?

  
  


-

  
  


Tommy was overcome with terror when he heard the trap door open, and what sounded like two people come down into the house. Who had Phil kidnapped this time? Who else was Phil subjecting to the torture that was being stuck down here? Tubbo? He  _ was _ almost like a brother to Tommy, and Phil had practically adopted him for almost a year when Tubbo showed up on their front porch, up until Tubbo, Tommy, and Wilbur set out to establish a country in the SMP lands. He hoped it wasn’t that, anything but that. 

  
  


He turned so that he could bury his face in Techno’s shirt. They were on Techno’s bed, Tommy awkwardly curled into Techno while his legs were sprawled out across the blankets. Surprisingly, he heard two sets of footsteps come down the hall. One oddly soft, like a cat, and the other set was heavier, like they were wearing combat boots or heavy-duty armor boots. Despite that, the last person he expected to see in the doorway was Badboyhalo, with Dream just behind him. Bad was easy to read, the shock, confusion, and horror evident in his expression and posture, but Dream was much harder. The only signs he gave off that what he saw upset him or confused him was how his hands curled into fists, and how he grit his teeth, his mouth being the only part of his face exposed by the mask.

  
  


“Tommy? What happened here? Are you okay? Is Technoblade okay?” Bad asked in a hurry, rushing over to the side of the bed, and reaching towards Tommy. He stopped when Tommy flinched away from him, grasping Techno tighter. Techno himself barely responded, merely looking towards the intruders, no part of his near euphoric expression changing.

  
  


“Dad- Philza locked us down here. I don’t even know how long it’s been anymore. He forces us to eat food spiked with weakness, and if we don’t on our own, then he’ll force-feed us. I’ve spent long enough paralyzed by potions for my leg muscles to atrophy beyond use, and Phil drugs Techno so that he’s too high to try and fight back.” Tommy sobbed, his answer coming out in a rush.  _ Well, that explains how Phil kept Technoblade stuck here for so long, _ Dream thought. “Please- Please save us, we can’t live like this much longer. Phil controls basically every aspect of our life by now, and it’s awful!” Tommy pleaded.

  
  


Bad looked to Dream, but he shook his head. “We aren’t prepared for a full-on rescue attempt. We need to plan more for that. But now we know you're here, we can come back soon and save you.” Dream explained.

  
  


“Can you do that for us? Stay safe just a little longer?” Bad asked, now carefully reaching out to hold Tommy’s fire-scarred hand. When Tommy nodded, bad gave him a kind smile. “Good. I’ll tell Tubbo you’re still alive, and missing him. He’ll be so happy to hear you haven’t been killed by Philza.” He comforted, before stiffening as what almost felt like a spark of electricity flashed down his spine, and sizzling at the end of his fingers. The warning barrier. 

  
  


“Dream, we have to go  _ now _ . Phil just crossed the border we made, he’ll be back soon. Tommy, take care of yourself and Techno. We’ll be back as soon as we can to save you. I promise.” And with that, Dream and Bad were gone, having run out of the room and down the hall, shutting and locking the trap door behind them.

  
  


Tommy just had to wait and hope Dream and Bad made it out safely, and that they would be able to save him and Techno soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know that song, Bruno is Orange? There’s this one part that really stands out to me.
> 
> Did you hear about that, mother?  
> Broke her daughter's legs in two  
> And said, "It's too dangerous out there to walk, so I had to save you"
> 
> Phil can’t take another heartbreak. That’s why he’s doing all of this.
> 
> Also he wasn’t neglectful to Techno, Wilbur, and Tommy when they were young in this story, he just wouldn’t coddle them, and made sure they knew how to take care of themselves, because he wouldn’t always be there to shield them and protect them. Oh, how he’s changed since then.
> 
> And how he will continue to change. ;)
> 
> I think you’ll all like chapter 19
> 
> -Para
> 
> Edit: I messed up the flow of events and the timeline by getting rid of a filler chapter and combining two chapters into one, so uh, here’s the stuff thats supposed to have happened:  
> -Tommy is supposed to have been kidnapped for six months by now, and Techno for two  
> -Chapter 19 is now chapter 18  
> -I have to go back and redo the script for chapters 16 and 17, and probably 18 and 19 as well


	16. Half empty or half full? Either way, Techno is half high.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil knows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know that baby kangaroos are called joeys? They look like little jelly beans when their super young. I’m surprised that their not some kind of delicacy or something.

“He was clutching Techno like he was his last lifeline, and End, they both looked so pale. Like they were sick. Tommy told me Philza had been putting weakness potions in their food- Oh, and he’s been drugging Techno. I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Technoblade looked like he was very,  _ very  _ high. It was scary, in a way. Technoblade, the  _ Blood God _ has been reduced to a high young adult. And he looked so  _ happy-” _

  
  


“Bad,  _ please _ tell me about what happened to Tommy. I need to know how he’s doing,” Tubbo pleaded. 

  
  


“Oh yes, right.” Bad said, getting back to what he had been saying before. “Apparently, at the beginning, Phil would spike his food with potions strong enough to leave him paralyzed for hours and hours after he ate. The combined effects of continuous weakness potions and being rendered immobile for so long each day caused his muscles to atrophy to the point where he couldn’t walk anymore, but he could still move his legs. But by the time we found him, so just a few hours ago, and a few months after he first lost the ability to walk, the atrophy has reached the point where he can’t move his legs at all. His mental health seemed pretty horrible as well, but he told us he can hold on long enough for us to save him and Techno. 

  
  


We have to start planning this raid on Phil’s base immediately. We can’t just go in and start destroying everything, Phil could turn on Techno and Tommy, or we could activate some new trap that would block Tommy and Techno from us. Dream and I set off a trap, so Phil might see that, and realize we’ve found Tommy and Technoblade. He might also try and move them someplace else, so we have to save them before he hides them away again.” Bad told Tubbo, the young president nodding seriously.

  
  


“We-  _ I  _ can’t risk losing Tommy again. Phil is really strong and powerful, right? There’s no way just the three of us can pull off a rescue mission on our own. We need… Sam definitely, he’s good with redstone, and he’s strong. He can disable traps and things. And Fundy would be helpful, he notices things a lot, and it's so strange- it's like he is a metal detector, but for secrets. If there's anything important hidden, then Fundy will be able to find it. Ranboo could also be helpful, he can teleport, but I don’t know if he can take people with him or how far he can go.” Tubbo suggested. “We can do this.”

  
  


-

  
  


Phil knew.

  
  


Philza knew someone had been in his base. The snow was messed up in front of the door, and one of the traps inside had been set off. Even though nobody was inside or caught in the trap, he knew someone had come in. His traps didn’t just set themselves off on their own, after all. Not to mention how Tommy was acting different when he came down to check on him and Techno. So, like a good father, he had to do something about it. He had to protect his kids from this new threat.

  
  


Protect, protect, protect… how could he make his kids more secure? More traps. He could build more traps to keep this new threat out, as well as more safeguards to make sure Tommy or Techno don’t accidentally leave their safe section of the base and hurt themselves, or get lost outside. And he could make more potions, new and better recipes to protect Techno from himself. Tommy was so sad all the time, as well. Phil could make Tommy happier, like Techno. If Tommy was happier, then he would stop giving Techno bad ideas like purposefully leaving their safe section. He might even let go of those dangerous ‘friends’ of his. They were dangerous; he couldn’t trust any of them to keep Tommy safe and protected. Not like how he could. 

  
  


No, no, they weren’t good enough. None of his sons would have gotten hurt if he hadn’t let his family go, that was so stupid of him. He  _ let _ Wilbur leave and take Tommy away with him, he  _ allowed _ Wilbur to go insane, and he  _ killed _ his own son. He killed his child and turned him into a ghost, a tiny fraction of his former self. Ghostbur was barely Wilbur at all, and seemed to only serve as a reminder of Phil’s failures raising his kids. He wouldn’t allow himself to make the same mistakes with Techno and Tommy. They had a perfect life in the safe haven he had built for them; they just didn’t know it yet. They would come around, though. And even if they didn’t, Philza would know he had kept his children safe. They would have a safe, happy life in the home he made for them.

  
  


But in order to give his sons this good life, he had to get them safely through this next threat. Their safe haven was no longer safe. So Phil would protect his sons. He would plan and defend and scheme to keep them safe from every threat.

  
  


-

  
  


Three weeks later, and everything had been prepared. All the new traps were set, and decoy rooms had been set up. The very layout of his base had been changed. There was just one last thing he had to do. Phil needed to bring his kids to the new rooms he had made for them.

  
  


Tommy was sleeping with Techno in his brother’s room again, and Phil smiled at how sweet it was. He had brought his sons together again and provided a safe environment for them to reconnect. They never would have done this seven months ago, if Techno trying to kill Tommy with withers meant anything. No withers here, no danger to his sons.

  
  


Phil gently took the blankets off of Tommy, and carefully disentangled Tommy from Techno’s arms. His older son shifted in his sleep, and Tommy mumbled something inaudible in protest, but neither awoke. Continuing, Phil managed to pick Tommy up and take him out of Techno’s room. He made it to the door before Tommy woke up, and though he started to call out to Techno as soon as he realized Phil had taken him, Phil managed to muffle it and lock Techno’s room door.

  
  


“Shhh, Toms. I’m sorry, but this is necessary. You’re going to be so much happier and  _ safer _ when you wake up again, just drink this potion.” He pulled a shimmery grayish purple potion from his pocket, and Tommy flinched away from it like it would burn him.

  
  


“I don’t want to. It’ll do something horrible- like poison me or something!” Tommy insisted, clearly trying to hold back tears. He looked past Phil and to where he could see Techno’s door across the hall. Techno had woken up and was shaking the door handle, like that would magically make the locked door unlock.

  
  


“If you can’t drink it on your own, I’ll have to help you,” Philza said sadly, as though disappointed his son still thought he wanted to hurt him. When Tommy didn’t respond, just looked past Phil with some kind of longing, Phil sighed and stepped closer, uncorking the potion. This was for Tommy’s own good, he would be safer and easier to move to the new room after this.

  
  


Tommy tried to fight him, but he really hadn’t stood a chance. Phil felt a twinge of guilt as he watched his youngest son drop off to sleep. This potion was made to keep Tommy asleep for several days, just a precaution. Phil would make something to wake Tommy up after he had been moved.

  
  


First though, Phil had to give Techno another dose of his potion. He was  _ not _ looking forward to that, Techno was always so resistant to it. Why? It certainly made him happier. Happier than he had been before Philza had brought him down here.

  
  


Phil unlocked the door, and immediately it was pulled open. Techno tried to push past him and get to Tommy, but Phil didn’t let him. 

  
  


“What did you do to him?” Techno asked, panic seeping into his monotone voice as he tried to get to Tommy, and Phil much more successfully managed to pin Techno to the ground. (Techno tried to kick Phil off of him, but all it did was cover up the sound of cracking stone down the hall.)

  
  


“He’s just sleeping, he’ll be fine.” Phil told Techno, opening another potion. He only got Techno to drink half of it, before Techno, for the first time, managed to free one of his hands and knock the potion away, the bottle shattering against the wall. (That sound hid Bad’s gasp as he ran down the hall, to see Techno being force-fed potions. It was so much worse than he had originally thought when Tommy told him.)

  
  


Phil was shocked, to say the least, when he got quite literally kicked off of Techno. He was pretty sure had some broken ribs from that, armor boots were pretty hard. He had barely started pushing himself up to his feet when he was attacked again. This time, his attacker kept him down, despite Philza’s efforts to escape. Who was attacking him- were there more people-  _ Were his kids safe- _

  
  


Phil managed to turn his head to look at Techno, who was being inspected by a concerned Badboyhalo. The concern only grew as Techno tried to pet Bad, smiling sheepishly when Bad gently grabbed Techno’s wrist and removed the hybrid’s hand from his hair.

  
  


“Is he okay?” The person on his back- Dream, that was Dream, asked. Phil tried to twist around and attack Dream, but got pushed back down.

  
  


“I… I think so. Aside from the obvious, but he doesn’t look dead or anything.” Bad reported back to Dream. 

  
  


Someone out of Phil’s sight started messing with Tommy’s door, and Phil felt hands rummaging around in his pockets, someone who sounded like Fundy making a sound of happiness as they found the key Phil used to lock the doors. Despair washed over Phil as he felt the safe haven he had made for his kids come crashing down around him. He started to laugh. How could he have let this happen?

  
  


-

  
  


With Bad’s help, Techno managed to sit up, and he watched people he hadn’t seen in quite some time. What were they doing by that door? They all seemed like they really wanted to get in. The foxy person with a colorful jacket got the door open, but the first one in was a short ram hybrid, followed closely by the fox and creeper hybrids. The fox one came back out pretty quickly.

  
  


“We found Tommy. He’s alive, but we can’t get him to wake up.” Techno didn’t really know what they were talking about, but he did recognize that name. That was his brother! He was supposed to protect him from… well, he didn’t know who, but they were nice and kept taking Tommy away. Which wasn’t nice.

  
  


“Okay. Can you help me with Phil? And tell Sam and Tubbo to get Tommy out of here. You too, Bad. Get Techno out.” They were talking about Tommy again, and now him as well. What were they going to do? 

  
  


Techno was distracted from his thoughts by spotting Sam carrying Tommy out of the room. Someone was taking Tommy, and Tommy looked like he was dead, and he was supposed to protect Tommy and keep people from taking him away- Technoblade managed to stand, surprising Bad, who was under the impression Techno couldn’t even sit up on his own in this state, based on how he had been leaning on Bad for the past three minutes. Techno stumbled towards Sam, almost tripping and falling, but Bad caught him and held him back despite his struggles to reach his brother.

  
  


Bad waited until Sam and Tubbo had gotten Tommy out of the broken trap door, then walked Techno over and encouraged him to climb it. Almost as soon as they were both out though, Techno seemed to lose whatever burst of energy had allowed him to stand and try to get to Tommy. Bad had to carry him out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The script thing has been fixed! Also, here’s that Phil chapter you asked about :)
> 
> .-.. --- .-.. / .. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - . -.. / - .... .. ... / - .... . -. / -.-. --- -- -- . -. - / ... --- -- . - .... .. -. --. / .- -... --- ..- - / .- .-. ... --- -.
> 
> -Para


	17. Well, that was traumatizing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tubbo only wants Tommy, and not the (traumatized) anti-government terrorist hybrid (with separation anxiety).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.-

Technoblade was decidedly very not okay in most ways. Here is a comprehensive list of the things making Techno not okay:

-Techno was going through drug withdrawal, which was just horrible. He was paranoid and jumpy, and generally acted like he was always right about to get forced to do something. He kept asking Bad if things he was seeing were real or not, and it took a while for Bad to convince Techno that he wasn’t hallucinating being rescued and Bad’s mansion.

-Techno definitely had PTSD. The first time Bad came to check on him, despite still being high, he was aware enough to jump up from where he had been sitting on the bed, staring out the window, and back himself into a corner. Bad had felt guilty that he had startled him, and wondered what exactly had happened to him and Tommy during the months they had been gone, and how much they could have spared them from, if they had gone down sooner. If Bad and Dream had taken them that first time they went down. Techno had also been reluctant to eat the food Bad brought him, not surprising, considering what Tommy had told him about spiked food. He also refused to leave Tommy’s room when Bad had taken him to visit his brother. Tommy hadn’t woken up yet, and Techno told Bad he was pretty sure Phil had given him a potion right before Bad and Dream and the others had arrived. Green was also a bad color to wear around Techno. They had learned that after Tubbo had come to visit Tommy, coming in the room while Techno was distracted. Techno had almost attacked the teen before realizing this short person wearing green was not Phil, who also happened to be short and wear green. Tubbo started wearing different colors after that. Even Dream and Sam wore different colors when visiting. Dream chose to wear a black sweater, and the inherently green creeper hybrid just wore a highlighter yellow jacket over his green clothes. That worked for Techno.

-Techno wasn’t sleeping. Once, on the first night after Bad and the others had rescued him and Tommy, Bad had woken up to screaming, and found Techno shakily petting Laelaps. All techno had said was ‘Nightmare’, and Bad left it at that. Nobody said anything, but they all saw how Techno seemed to get more and more tired as the days went on. Bad wondered if he wasn’t able to sleep anymore without someone with him.

Bad was certain that there were other things, but he just hadn’t identified them yet.

  
  


Tommy woke up five days after he was rescued. Techno, Tubbo, and Bad were in the room, and Tubbo was trying to convince Bad to let him take Tommy back to L’manburg, but didn’t want Techno to come. Techno  _ was _ technically still a national enemy after all. Both Bad and Techno were against the idea. Techno didn’t want to be separated from his little brother, and while Bad also didn’t want to separate the siblings(he had seen how anxious Techno got when he had to leave Tommy), he also didn’t think Tommy would be very safe in L’manburg. There were a lot of stairs(not very wheelchair accessible), and most of L’manburg was placed right on top of a water filled crater. He was also unsure if L’manburg had railings. If Tommy fell over the edge, It wasn’t like he would be able to swim back to the surface very easily, if at all. In contrast, Bad’s mansion in the Badlands had wide halls, and mostly flat land around it. Tommy would be able to get around much more easily if he stayed here for a while.

  
  


Bad had been about to explain  _ again _ to Tubbo why L’manburg was very wheelchair inaccessible, when Tommy groaned and started blinking open his eyes. Immediately, all of their attention was on Tommy, and Techno held Tommy’s hand. The blonde boy squinted at the ceiling, then at the people staring at him, then at the blue tinted windows, then back to Techno. “Whaa happened? Wherrre are we now?”

  
  


“Bad, Dream, and a few others took down Phil and saved us. We’re in Bad’s mansion now. You’ve been out for a few days, are you okay?” Techno asked.

  
  


“Really hungry and thirsty, mostly,” Tommy replied, before his eyes caught on Tubbo. Bad left the room as Tommy tried to sit up, Techno helping him after a moment. “Tubbo? You’re real, right? I’m not imagining you or something?”

  
  


Tubbo smiled, though it was a little strained. He hadn’t really realized just how different Tommy would be. Sure he looked different now, and couldn’t do some stuff, but Tommy was confident to a fault, and rarely doubted himself. But this Tommy couldn’t trust his own eyes. “Yea, I’m real. I’m glad you’re okay now.”

  
  


Tommy reached towards him, like he was trying to hug Tubbo, and Tubbo walked around the bed to sit close enough to hug his friend. He was a little surprised to hear Tommy mumble, “Oh, how the turns have tabled. I’m the clingy child now.”

  
  


That got a laugh out of Tubbo, and Tommy joined in a moment later, though it sounded rough, like he had swallowed knives or something, and speaking was painful. 

  
  


“I don’t mind if you’re clingy, I’m happy you’re safe from Philza, and not like, murdered and cannibalized and 200% dead.” Tubbo smiled again, less forced this time.

  
  


“Yea, that seems much better than the alternative.” Tommy laughed. “I would rather be alive than dead right now.”

  
  


-

  
  


Bad returned with water and food, which Tommy practically inhaled. He only managed to get through about a third of the food though, before his hands were shaking too much to properly hold the fork. It was a bit of a shock to both Bad and Tubbo, when Technoblade picked up the fork, speared a piece of potato with it, then held it up for Tommy. Tommy himself was unfazed, and just continued eating(with Techno’s silent help) and talking. 

  
  


They continued like this until Tommy finished eating, at which point he started yawning a lot. Bad let Tubbo stay and talk with Tommy until Tommy was very clearly struggling to stay awake, and Bad had to practically drag the young president out of the room, letting him stay in a different room for the night(and as long as he wanted to, because separating the newly reunited friends seemed cruel).

  
  


Bad wasn’t surprised at all when he came back to check on Tommy and Technoblade, finding the siblings together, deep in sleep. Based off of what he had seen down in the basement house the first time he went down, and Techno’s protective behavior since he and Tommy were rescued, Bad had guessed that they both felt safer around each other, and that Techno couldn’t sleep without nightmares if he wasn’t with Tommy.

  
  


He shut the door, making sure it was left unlocked(he had accidentally locked Techno in a room once, it did not go well), and left to sleep as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter just really didn’t want to. Hopefully Chapter 18 won’t take -.. .- -.. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / ... -.-. .- .-. .. -. --. / -- . .-.-.- .-.-.- -.-.-- an extra day, and I can get it out to you all tomorrow.
> 
> :)
> 
> -Para


	18. Pandora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Vault

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Phil :)

“So, Philza is in your prison.”

  
  


Tommy and Technoblade were discussing their father with Bad and Sam. The siblings were glad he had been put somewhere so secure, but it really was quite unfortunate that Pandora’s Vault was literally right next to Bad’s mansion. That less than half a mile away, was the entrance to the place where the brothers’ former captor had been imprisoned. Yet even then… with all Phil had put them through… 

  
  


“We want to visit him.” Tommy stated, though his voice wavered. Both Bad and Sam were startled by that. Bad had an expression of concern, and he seemed about to go into a full-on lecture on why they shouldn’t go anywhere near Phil, whereas Sam just looked a little hesitant.

  
  


“Are you sure? There are quite a few precautions I’ll have to take, and some of the checkpoints might be… quite unpleasant, after what you’ve gone through. You also don’t know the full extent of the psychological damage my prisoner has caused to you both yet.” Bad gave Sam a disapproving glance, like he was irritated the creeper hybrid was even considering this. Sam only shrugged back at Bad, as though saying that it’s their choice to visit their father, and that though Bad has been acting as a guardian to Tommy and Techno while they recovered, it wasn’t official, and technically, as his brother and an adult, Technoblade was Tommy’s guardian, and since Techno was an adult, he didn’t really  _ need _ a guardian. That didn’t stop Bad from worrying about the two, though.

  
  


“Yea, I’m okay with it. And Techno is too, we talked about this last night after Tubbo left,” Tommy informed Sam.

  
  


“Okay. Normally, I wouldn’t let two people in at once, but because you two are a special case and someone needs to help Tommy, I’ll allow you both in. Nobody else, though.”

  
  


-

  
  


“ _ What?! _ ” Tubbo exclaimed, glaring at Sam. “You're letting them go in there? And on top of that, you won’t let me in to watch Tommy?”

  
  


“Tommy isn’t a pet that can’t take care of itself. He’s still capable and intelligent, and can make his own decisions. And it is a security issue, letting three people in at once. Phil could get out, and where would that get us?” Sam calmly replied, though he was starting to get irritated with Tubbo.

  
  


“But- He’s-” The president cut himself off, sighing. “Okay. I just don’t want to lose him to Philza again. End, I’m probably acting like how  _ he _ was. Just please make sure he doesn’t hurt Tommy more? He’s already been through so much.”

  
  


“Of course. As warden of the prison, it’s my job to keep both the prisoner contained, and any visitors safe from the prisoner. Now if you wouldn’t mind..?” Sam leaned to the side to look past Tubbo, to where Tommy and Techno had been patiently waiting for Tubbo to finish his rant and get out of the way. Tubbo’s face flushed with embarrassment, and hurriedly stepped out of the way. 

  
  


“Sorry, sorry, forgot you were there,” He mumbled as Techno walked past, Tommy shrugging from his wheelchair.

  
  


“It’s fine, you just worry for me.” Tommy said to Tubbo, smiling reassuringly. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but it had made him uncomfortable when Tubbo started talking about how the prison wasn’t  _ safe _ , and how he shouldn’t be  _ allowed _ into it, like he couldn’t make his own decisions. It was a little too similar to how Phil had acted to go unnoticed. 

  
  


Sam and the two siblings went through the portal, and then through it again, so that they were in the Prison. “Please place all your items into the locker down this hall. You’ll have to leave the wheelchair here as well; it could get damaged in the checkpoints, and Phil might be able to use it as a weapon.”

  
  


“How’ll I get around then?” Tommy asked Sam.

  
  


“Either Techno or I can carry you. It might not be the most comfortable, but it’s to avoid a possible jailbreak.” Sam replied apologetically. Tommy wasn’t very happy about it, but he left the wheelchair in the room, coming out a minute later in Techno’s arms.

  
  


They proceeded down a different hall, Sam doing a quick search to make sure they didn’t have anything on them, then continued walking. The hall seemed to end abruptly, the floor falling away into a very deep chasm, but after Sam flipped a lever, it rose up and allowed them to cross. They then went through a complex door made of iron, and entered the lesser containment cells. Not a single one of the sixteen cells had anyone in them, at least as far as Tommy and Techno could tell. Still, Tommy felt relieved when Sam opened up the next room, and they left the cells behind. They went through another physical search, just in case, and then proceeded to the final few checkpoints.

  
  


Because Tommy couldn’t swim, Sam decided to take Tommy through an alternate tunnel. That was less of a problem than the potions they had to take to pass the checkpoint, though. Neither sibling was very happy to find out they had to drink potions at all, much less literal poison. They did drink them, though, then Sam sent Techno through the water checkpoint. 

  
  


They all met back up in a room with two lecterns, each with a contract placed on it. Sam explained them, and both brothers signed them, though Tommy didn’t like the thought of spending potentially seven days locked in a cell with his kidnapper. Despite that, it was pretty fun, going through the lava checkpoint, flying through and over the lava that made up the second to last checkpoint. Techno was more reserved, though hearing Tommy laugh over something as childish as flying through lava did get a smile out of him. 

  
  


Sam was waiting for them in the final room, and directed them to stand on some stone bricks that seemed out of place among all of the blackstone and obsidian that made up Pandora’s Vault.

  
  


“I’m going to start retracting the lava. You both are sure you want to do this? Once I extend the bridge, there’s no going back. You won’t be able to change your mind half-way across.” Sam warned as he pulled down the lever to retract the lava.

  
  


The brothers shared a glance. “We’re sure. We need to do this.”

  
  


“Okay. The lava will be down in a few minutes. When the bridge crosses, be careful not to fall down into the lava below. There will also be a barrier between you and the prisoner. Do you want me to lower it after the lava falls again?”

  
  


“No, leave it up. We don’t want him getting close to us.” Techno said, probably the first words he had spoken to Sam since they entered the Prison. Sam nodded at the request.

  
  


The lava dropped away after several minutes, revealing a massive chamber. And in the center… an obsidian box suspended in the middle of the chamber, as though placed on top of a matching obsidian pedestal. And through the bars they could see from across the lava pit, Techno could just barely make out the typical green and black of their father’s clothing. This was it. They were really doing this.

  
  


With a final warning about falling from Sam, and that they just had to call out to him and Sam would bring them back, Sam activated the bridge, and they crossed lava for the second time that day. This time though, their eyes were locked on the figure they could see waiting for them inside the cell, and not on the glowing and bubbling lava far below them. None of the three spoke, until Sam retracted the bridge, and the lava dropped back down.

  
  


“You came to visit me, even after what I did to you.” Phil stated, his voice rough and raspy. He didn’t move from the corner he had pressed himself into, barely even turning his head to look at them. Or, at least Techno assumed Phil was looking at them, it was hard to tell with his eyes obscured by his hair and the brim of his bucket hat. Neither brother responded. “Nothing to say to me? I’m not surprised. I see Tommy still can’t walk though, I knew he was too weak to last long outside.”

  
  


“No. Tommy isn’t weak, and  _ you _ are the reason he can’t walk anymore. He would have been just fine, if you hadn’t forced him to eat spiked food and stay bedridden to the point his muscles started to atrophy, and I wouldn’t be so unreasonably paranoid and terrified of potions, had you not forcefully drugged me with them! Everything wrong with us right now was caused by you. Nothing you did was to keep us  _ safe _ or  _ happy _ or  _ protected _ , it was only to keep us dependent on you, and unable to escape or fight back. You abused us and hurt us. But now we truly are safe; we’re safe from  _ you _ .” Techno said, not raising his voice, but saying each word with such venom that it had the same effect.

  
  


“I only did that to keep you from hurting Tommy or yourself. You were too dangerous and unpredictable to be left aware.” Phil defended himself, pushing himself off of the floor to stand. Chains secured to his wrists and ankles clattered and slid across the floor as he stood, all hooked to the back wall of his cell. And as he walked towards the bars, tilting his head back enough to reveal his face, the brothers were able to see the bloody scratches on his face and on his wrists, right around where the cuffs circled his wrists. And from how there was dried blood under his nails and at his fingertips, he had done it to himself.

  
  


“The only thing those potions were doing was making me easy to manipulate and control. No part of that was to keep Tommy safe.” At Techno’s words, Phil seemed to stiffen and freeze, stopping his slow shuffle towards the bars separating him from his remaining sons.

  
  


-

Oddly enough, Techno felt like he had crossed a line, and Phil looked so sad and hurt by Techno’s words. Why was he yelling at Phil? What was he doing? He had upset his father. He was a terrible son, Phil hadn’t done anything to deserve that. No, Techno had hurt him for no reason, and he was a horrible son, a terrible person, he didn’t deserve to have a father as inherently good and nice and kind as Phil-

  
  


-

  
  


Tommy wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but one moment, Phil and Techno were staring at each other, and the next, Phil was lunging at the bars, clawing at them and straining against the chains holding him back like a rabid dog, and Techno was on the ground, clutching his head and screaming like he was on fire. 

  
  


Phil flared his wings, revealing slashed primaries and many missing feathers in general. He tried to reach through the bars, his eyes empty of any rational thought, just desperation and something else Tommy couldn’t quite identify, but figuring it out wasn’t as high on his list of priorities as ‘recovering from being dropped onto the floor’ and ‘getting himself out of Phil’s reach’ was. Which wasn’t going too well for him, Phil had managed to grap his ankle and start dragging Tommy towards the bars.

  
  


Desperately, Tommy called out Sam’s name, his voice cracking, and he heard the sound of the lava getting retracted. He could only hope that Sam could get to him and Techno before something horrible happened, because Phil’s grip hurt and Tommy couldn’t pull himself away because he couldn’t move his useless legs, and if Techno rolled back then he would go right into the lava wall and he would burn and  _ burn and burn and leave Tommy all alo _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- .... . / . -. -.. / .. ... / -. --- - / - .... . / . -. -.. / .. ... -. - / .... . .-. . / .. ... / -.. .- -.. / .. ... -. - / - .... . / ... .- -- . / .- ... / -... . ..-. --- .-. . / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. . .- ...- . / ... .- -.-- / --. --- --- -.. -... -.-- . / -... . -.-. .- ..- ... . / -.-- --- ..- .-.. .-.. / -. . ...- . .-. / -.- -. --- .-- / .. ..-. / - .... . -.-- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .-. . - ..- .-. -. / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / ---... -.--.- / -....- .--. .- .-. .-


	19. Missing Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which missing memories are actually only mentioned twice.
> 
> It was not a nightmare, Tommy. Nightmares don’t leave bruises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .. / .... .- -.. / .- / -... .- --. . .-.. / ..-. --- .-. / -... .-. . .- -.- ..-. .- ... -

Sam couldn’t get across fast enough; the lava fell  _ so slowly _ and the bridge didn’t extend very fast. He was met with a delirious and hysterical Techno, who had curled into a ball and was shaking, clearly unaware of the world around himself, and Tommy was held against the bars of the prison cell by Philza, the unhinged man pinning Tommy to the warm metal in a not quite loving hug. Sam had to kick at Phil to get him to let go of Tommy, and glared at Tommy’s former father as he carefully dragged the limp and non-responsive teen to the bridge. When he went back for Techno, Phil tried to swat at Sam through the bars, but it wasn’t very effective due to the heavy chains weighing him down, and the bars in the way. Techno didn’t so much as flinch when Sam picked him up, though the way Philza’s eyes stayed glued to Techno had Sam worried.

  
  


As soon as the two (awake but unresponsive) brothers were safely back in Bad’s mansion, Sam pulled Bad aside. “We need to talk.”

  
  


_ Because nobody really knows what Phil is capable of, after all. _

  
  


-

  
  


Bad put Tommy and Techno to sleep using splash potions, and he and Sam discussed for several hours what they would do with the siblings. The first thing was clear; they were not to go to the prison again. That was for certain. But they didn’t want to restrict their freedom too much, neither Bad nor Sam wanted to recreate an environment similar to the one Philza made when he kidnapped them. So no other restrictions, if they could be avoided.

  
  


The second thing they decided was that they would get the two some therapy, they definitely needed it. They could probably get Dream to practice with Techno and get him back up to his former strength. As for Tommy, they could probably figure out some form of physical therapy. Fundy knew some stuff about healing, he would probably know how to help Tommy. As well as that, Fundy knew at least something about magic, and Bad could work with him on a more magical way to help heal Tommy on top of the physical therapy. That just left the therapy to help them through their trauma. Yeah, that was going to be difficult. But they could cross that bridge later.

  
  


The third thing was what to do with Philza. He was dangerous, not exactly sane, and he seemed to have gone feral. Whatever happened in that prison cell… Sam had no idea, but none of the three had come out unscathed. He wondered if it would be better if Techno and Tommy didn’t remember what had happened, because surely it had been something truly horrifying. But back to Phil- they had to decide his fate soon. At this point, between his (clearly broken beyond repair) state of mind, and how unpredictable and dangerous he would be if he escaped in this state, it might be best to just kill him. Surprisingly, Bad agreed. And just like that, they had an execution planned. Because things never go wrong in executions.

  
  


They informed Tubbo and Dream of their decision, as the president deserved some say in what happened, and it was just a generally good idea to not hide things from the (maybe a little overly suspicious) green smiley man. Neither of the two had any issues with the idea either, so their plan was set. Kill Philza sometime soon. Easy, right?

  
  


-

  
  


Tommy jolted awake, panting as he stared around the room. Bright quartz walls and blue stained glass, not black obsidian and the slightly too hot glow of lava. _Just a bad dream. Just a bad dream. He was safe- truly safe, not Phil’s version of safe, and Techno was with him and they were both fine._ _And Phil…_ Where was Philza? Tommy’s mind brushed over the empty space where that piece of information had rested. Phil was… dead? Yes, that had to be right. He was gone forever, and couldn’t hurt Tommy or Techno anymore. And visiting Philza in the prison was just a nightmare. It had to be.

  
  


Tommy clung to this explanation, despite the bruises around his ankle and arms, where the nightmare Phil had held too tightly. Despite how when Bad came in to check on them, and Tommy told him about his nightmare, and how it was a good thing Philza was dead, Bad gave him a confused look, then proceeded to not meet his eyes for the rest of the day. Because Techno had agreed with him. And in his nightmare, Technoblade had been there, but now, he had no memory whatsoever of visiting Phil or the Prison, so it was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare.

  
  


-

  
  


Tommy has regrets. He regrets agreeing to the physical therapy Sam and Bad had suggested, and Techno had encouraged him to do. Because he had been doing it for what felt like years, though it had only really been a few weeks, and they hadn’t made any progress past getting him to the point where he could move his legs, and stand if he had someone supporting him. Walking with help was still too difficult though, his legs refusing to both walk and support his weight. 

  
  


Not even Bad and Fundy’s magical attempts to help him walk were doing much, aside from making his legs feel numb, and his spine go all tingly. At one point, they even accidentally turned his hair dandelion yellow, and he was stuck with eye-strainingly bright hair for a few days, until Fundy figured out how to reverse it. And to be honest, Tommy didn’t really know why exactly Fundy was helping Bad with his magical magic stuff. Sure, Fundy was the closest thing to a proper doctor on the SMP, and Fundy had some experience with magic, being both a shapeshifter and a Dreamon Hunter, but did that really qualify him to do who knows what to Tommy with magic during therapy sessions? Tommy didn’t think so. But Techno wasn’t worried, by now, he trusted Bad and Fundy, and nothing absolutely  _ terrible _ had happened yet. Tommy could put up with this for a little while longer.

  
  


Today was different, though. They had drawn out a different design on the floor than normal, and it was both smaller and more complex. And they didn’t want  _ him _ to sit in it… they wanted Laelaps. Now this was interesting. What did they want to do to Laelaps? And why? Unsurprisingly, neither Bad nor Fundy would tell him. Whatever, he’d find out soon enough.

  
  


Before they put Laelaps into the circle, they put a collar (more like a pendant though, what with the thin chord and the lapis stone hanging from it) on her. Lapis was the base of magic, or something like that. That's why it was used to enchant items at an enchanting table, it sealed the enchantments into the item, and gave the carved enchantment table text it’s power. Then, they started their ritual thing.

  
  


Tommy supposed it was pretty cool, how Fundy’s eyes started to glow, and how they both got hazy like they were made of smoke, but he was honestly used to it by now. What he wasn't used to however, was Laelaps getting hazy and glowing as well, her typically pale blue and yellow eyes changing to a deep lapis blue, and the bright shade of molten gold. And they stayed like that, when she became clear again, like Tommy had been looking through a cloudy lens. But… Laelaps hadn’t been the size of a small pony before. Laelaps hadn’t been wearing the weirdest looking saddle Tommy had ever seen before. 

  
  


Tommy looked to Bad and Fundy, his confusion evident in his expression. Bad was smiling, and Fundy was barely holding back his gleeful laughter. “Wha? Why? How?”

  
  


Fundy, giving in to his laughter, was unable to respond, so Bad explained for him. “You know how Fundy is a shapeshifter? Well, we had this idea to make Laelaps one as well. But the difference is that she can’t change to different animals, just her size. And she can't do it on her own, you have to tell her to shift, and then she will switch between this form,” Bad patted Laelaps on the head, “and her normal fox sized form.”

  
  


“But why? What’s the point of a giant fox pet? And what’s up with the saddle?” Tommy asked, still confused.

  
  


“We found one of the books Phil took and reference when building your wheelchair, because we wanted to see if there was a way we could make it more mobile and easier to get around using. We didn’t find anything like that, but we did find a different solution. There was a section on people who couldn’t walk choosing to ride horses and other rideable animals around instead, using special saddles to keep them balanced without the use of their legs. You also already have an animal friend, so why not make it so you could use her? She can go more places with you, and you could take her into buildings. She’s still smaller than a horse, and she’s well-trained.”

  
  


“So you're saying I’m supposed to ride around on Laelaps like she’s a pony. Okay. That’s not the strangest thing that has happened to me this year, this is fine.” Tommy nudged Techno, totally not waking him up because Techno totally hadn’t fallen asleep as soon as they got there, nooo. “Hey Techno, look at Laelaps! She’s giant now! And I get to ride her!”

  
  


Techno (totally not sleepily) blinked at Laelaps, then squinted as he tried to figure out exactly what he was seeing. Big fox. Saddle. Happy Tommy. Nobody is dead, dying, or hurt. “Cool.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .... . / -.-. --- ..- .-.. -.. -. - / .-- .- .-.. -.- --..-- / ... --- / ... .... . / -.. .. -.. / ..-. --- .-. / .... .. -- .-.-.- / . -.-- . ... / --- ..-. / -... .-.. ..- . / .- -. -.. / --. --- .-.. -.. --..-- / .- -. -.. / .- / -.-. --- .- - / --- ..-. / ..-. .-. . ... .... .-.. -.-- / ..-. .- .-.. .-.. . -. / ... -. --- .-- .-.-.- / ... .... .- .--. . ... .... .. ..-. - . .-. ..--.. / -- --- .-. . / .-.. .. -.- . / ... .. --.. . ... .... .. ..-. - . .-. .-.-.-
> 
> Take this nice little chapter about our favorite foxes.  
> Opinions on endings? More or less creepy/detailed?  
> I can also no longer promise 25 chapters, it is more likely that there will only be 20 or 21. But, in doing this, I’m leaving the potential for another work. A sequel, so to say. But no promises; the only thing for certain is that nothing is for certain.
> 
> -Para :)


	20. Dream gets tortured by Techno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno tortures Dream by brushing his hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If the fight scene sounds familiar, it’s heavily based off of what happened in SADist’s dream vs technoblade animatic because I couldn’t write an original fight scene if my life depended on it :)

Technoblade stood in the sandy circle Dream had set up, a somewhat small makeshift arena for them to practice in. Well- more specifically, an arena for Dream to repeatedly beat the (now) significantly weaker and out of practice Technoblade into the sand until he can effectively stab Dream enough to make Bad satisfied that he isn’t going to drop dead the moment a Zombie merely glances at him. Because Zombies and the other hostile mobs are as hard to kill as Dream. Yes, definitely.

  
  


At least Dream didn’t treat him like he was made of glass and about to break at the slightest breeze(Bad), or like he was always one second away from going feral and kill everyone within a 20 mile radius(Tubbo). His training sessions with Dream were quite fun, actually. Not only was he getting better and closer to his former state of ungodly strength, but he was learning new tactics and moves from Dream. Where Techno’s skills had been taught by Philza and honed in the Hypixel arenas of Skywars and Bedwars, giving Techno a more unpredictable style of fighting that tended to rely on potions for added strength, speed, health, and jump-height, Dream had learned from multiple skilled fighters, and practiced them with his friends in games where they had to hunt him down, and he had to come up with clever traps and tricks to slow them down.

  
  


Speaking of which, Dream was finally done making a show of inspecting the dulled down iron axe Bad had provided him with. Techno had a similarly dulled sword. Strong and sturdy enough to not break in the middle of an intense training session, but dulled to the point where they would be useless in an actual battle. Bad and Fundy didn’t want to have to heal bad cuts and scrapes on top of trying to find a way to help Tommy, especially with Techno’s refusal to drink potions if it wasn’t life or death. When Dream sent him a questioning glance, asking him if he was ready to start, Techno nodded, and they began.

  
  


Both Dream and Techno approached each other, preparing their first attacks. Though Techno’s sword missed Dream, it meant Dream had to pull back, and his own attack fell short. Techno took advantage of how heavy Dream’s axe was, and swung again, but Dream threw his shield in the way, and Techno’s sword became embedded into the sturdy wood(They had the choice between a shield or fishing rod; Techno chose the one he was most familiar with). Dream, having gotten his heavy axe out of the sand it had embedded itself into, raised it up, and seung down at Techno’s hand, forcing him to release his sword and back away.

  
  


With Dream’s axe once again stuck in the sand, and he himself weaponless, Techno knew he would have to get creative with fighting Dream, and getting his sword back. Within the span of two seconds, Technoblade kicked at his sword, causing it to fly out of Dream’s shield, and then turned the force of the kick on Dream, so that his opponent fell backwards and onto the sandy ground. His shield now lay off to the side, Dream having dropped it. 

  
  


Techno caught the sword he had kicked from Dream’s shield, and immediately stepped into another attack, from which Dream scrambled to grab his shield and escape in time, to avoid getting hit by Techno. Having retreated with an absurdly cool backflip, Dream barely had time to recover before Techno had pulled out his fishing rod, and flung the hook at Dream, where it caught and tangled him up in the fishing line. He once again dropped his shield, instead trying to find a way out of the fishing line before Techno reached him.

  
  


Dream managed to hook his axe under the string and slice it, just in time to avoid a flick of the rod that would have sent him falling to the side. He began sprinting at Techno, who slammed his foot into the shield Dream had dropped, allowing Techno to catch it and equip it. Distantly, Techno heard Tommy and Tubbo cheering from the sidelines, but he didn’t know who each of the boys were cheering for, and he didn’t have time to check before Dream was running at him with the axe. Dream jumped and Techno raised the shield, expecting some kind of heavy kick, but instead, Dream landed on the shield and seemed to perch on the shield, swinging the axe around the shield and Techno to land a powerful blow to his back, using the side of the axe instead of the blade to spread out the force of the blow.

  
  


Techno collapsed to the ground, the air knocked out of him, and he stayed in the sand for a minute or two while he recovered, before rolling over to face Dream, who was standing over him. 

  
  


“Are you dead? Did I kill the unkillable god?” Dream asked jokingly, giving Techno a wide and joking smile, which Techno returned, though he was more subdued.

  
  


“Technoblade never dies.” He replied, using his favorite quote. “Now show me how you did that. I haven’t seen anyone do that before.”

  
  


Techno hauled himself to his feet, stretching his arms above his head while Dream called out to Tommy and Tubbo. “He lives! No funerals today!” He then turned to where Bad was approaching, carrying a tray of muffins. He really was channeling his doting grandmother energy right now, was he? “Hey Bad, can you help me out?”

  
  


Bad nodded, and set the tray of muffins down next to Tubbo and Tommy. The boys immediately fell on both the blueberry muffins and the chocolate ones, almost like they were ravenous wolves who hadn’t eaten in months. “What do you need me to do?”

  
  


Techno was reminded of Bad’s not-human-ness when the demon hybrid stood in front of him, not so much by how he looked like he was made of shadows, had horns, and hair that dissolved into misty darkness at the ends, but by his height. Techno was quite tall, being a seven foot tall pig hybrid, but Bad was a good foot taller than him, and if you included his horns, he totaled right about nine feet. It was quite intimidating, minus how he radiated doting grandmother energy. 

  
  


“What do you need me to do?” Bad asked.

  
  


“Take this shield, and hold it up like your getting attacked from above and in front of you. Hold it as steady as you can, I’m going to jump on it.” Dream told Bad, and Bad nodded, picking the shield up from where Techno had left it. As soon as Bad was ready, Dream showed Techno how he ran up, and how he pushed off of the ground so that he would have enough height to land on the shield. Once he was standing on it, Dream pointed out how he placed his feet so that they spaced his weight out, and how if he wanted to, he could balance there for hours, so long as Bad didn’t drop the shield or anything. In essence, the concept was quite simple. Dream said it could be used against any enemy with a shield, either to knock them down, or use them as a boost to jump into the air, and then use gravity to add force to your next attack. You could even boost up your allies doing it.

  
  


They practiced the move for a few more hours, Tommy coming into the arena at one point so Dream could give him pointers on fighting from horseback(or in his case, Foxback). When they did finish though, both Dream and Techno’s hair were starting to fall out of the ponytail (dream) and overly complex braided bun (Techno) they had put their hair up into. Techno immediately pounced on the chance to tease Dream, calling him out on his messy and tangled hair. Between all the wars and conflict going on in the SMP, Dream hadn’t had time to cut his hair short, so he let it grow out. But unlike Techno, he hadn’t taken the time to comb it out and take care of it, so now it looked really sloppy. 

  
  


“Well, if my hair is  _ oh so horrendous, _ and you are  _ so much better  _ at doing your hair, as well as having enough time to do it all fancy, why don’t you do mine too?” Dream replied, smirking. He immediately stopped when Techno dragged him over to a bench and made him sit. Dream hadn’t thought Techno would  _ actually do his hair for him. _

  
  


Despite all of Dream’s whining and complaining, and it was hard for Techno to believe someone so seemingly heartless could be so childish, Techno refused to let Dream leave, until he had combed all of the knots out of his hair, and pulled it back into a purposefully messy man bun, put up in a way that it wouldn’t come down as easily as his previous ponytail, and also be more out of the way. Dream would be lying if he said he wasn’t intimidated by Techno’s skill with hair.

  
  


Dream felt better though, when Techno ended up forcing Tommy, Tubbo, and Bad into getting hairstyle makeovers as well. Tommy got braids and a ponytail with the back of his hair hanging down, and as Tubbo’s hair was too short to really do much with it, Techno gave Tommy a handful of small hairbands and let him go crazy, making a ton of tiny braids and ponytails that made Tubbo’s head start to resemble a porcupine. Bad’s hairdo was perhaps the most interesting, because it wasn’t actually hair, at least in a traditional sense. It was more like smoky darkness that liked to act like hair. Techno somehow managed to manipulate what used to be a tiny ponytail into a long and absurdly complex braid. When Techno had finished with everyone else’s hair, he let Tommy do his hair, and now, Dream was even more intimidated by Techno’s family in general. Wilbur had been crazy, Techno had the potential to become a godlike warrior, and both Techno and Tommy could do hair.  _ Absolutely terrifying. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How many of you stay up at night, unable to sleep because Bbh’s canon height is nine feet?
> 
> No morse code hints this time
> 
> -Para :)


	21. Execution; The End?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story comes to a close

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Implied death, actual death, and mild descriptions of violence/blood/injury
> 
> I’ll see you on the other side :)

The day of the execution arrived, and everything was going surprisingly well. Pretty much everyone aside from Tommy and Technoblade were there, as well as some of the people who didn’t really care. A group consisting of the L’manburg cabinet, their citizens, Bad, and a few others from the Badlands were discussing how they would proceed with the event. Trial or no trial? No trial, because it wasn’t like Phil was really capable of responding in a way that made sense. 

  
  


Dream hung back, avoiding really talking to anyone, choosing instead to watch and wait. This wasn’t particularly strange behavior for him, but he did seem conflicted or confused. That was strange for him, but Bad brushed it off as him just being nervous or something. He was one of the people who had been insistent since the beginning that they had to find Tommy, and then later on, that Philza had to go.

  
  


The morning dragged on, and around ten in the morning, Sam finally showed up, Phil stumbling in front of him. It was strange- Phil wasn’t acting so much like a person about to be executed, instead he was strangely docile. He didn’t fight as Sam led him over to the slightly raised platform on the L’Manburg stage, or struggle as Sam clipped the ends of the chains into rings. It was almost like Philza had been swapped with a sheep, and nobody had noticed. He stared listlessly into the crowd, as though he was seeing something else(but Dream knew he wasn’t, Dream knew Philza’s eyes were pinned to him, and he knew  _ it _ was Phil, Philza was doing this to him-).

  
  


The conversation steadily shifted to how they would execute Phil. They didn’t have an anvil guillotine set up, and that could get… messy, to say the least. Nobody really wanted to scrape Phil off of the wood, anyway. At one point, Tubbo suggested they kill him like how he killed Wilbur. Although the others initially didn’t want to do it that way, the idea became more and more appealing as they discussed it. It would be more honorable to die by sword, and more respectful to the man Philza used to be, before he kidnapped his children and went crazy. 

  
  


“I want to do it.” Dream interrupted the conversation, which had gone to discussing who would kill Phil. Nobody else really wanted to do it, so it had dissolved into the group trying to tell each other instead. They jumped on the escape, and Dream found himself approaching Philza with a netherite sword in his hands. All Dream had to do was stab Phil. Simple, right?

  
  


Dream raised the sword over Phil’s head, staring down at the older man. For the first time, Bad noticed Dream’s hands were shaking. He swung down, the shimmering blackish purple blade slicing down through the air, and with a snap, the blade cleaved the chains holding back Phil’s left wrist and ankle. Before anyone could react, Dream did the same to the chains on Phil’s right.

  
  


The moment he was freed, Phil shot up from where he was kneeling on the ground, and sprinted away. He was gone by the time anyone recovered from the shock of Dream freeing Phil. Speaking of Dream, he had collapsed like a marionette with cut strings the moment Phil had been freed. He was now shaking on the ground, tangling his fingers into his hair and holding his head. No response when Fundy nudged him, or when Sam tried talking to him. This was scarily similar to how Techno and Tommy had acted after visiting Phil. 

  
  


_ What was he? How was he doing this? _

…

_ What was Philza going to do now? _

  
  


-

  
  


Bad walked through the grounds around his mansion, a last check to make sure Philza wasn’t lurking around or anything, evading the search party that had gone out after him. All of L’manburg, and most of the Badlands had gone out to find Phil, though Sam had stayed behind to keep an eye on Dream, whom they had stuck in a cell in Pandora’s Vault. He’d be staying there until he tells everyone  _ why  _ he didn’t just kill Phil like he was supposed to.

  
  


At least Bad could keep an eye on Tommy and Technoblade. They had agreed to stay inside the mansion until Bad and the others recaptured and killed Phil. They didn’t know it was Phil, of course, they still thought he was dead. But they didn’t need to know… right? It didn’t make that much of a difference.

  
  


Bad was startled out of his thoughts when he saw a surprisingly long raven feather flutter down in front of him. Bad bent down to pick it up. No, he realized, that couldn't be a raven’s feather. It was way longer than a raven, much less a raven’s feather. He flipped the feather over, and inhaled sharply when he saw the top half of a white diamond at the end of the feather, the rest of it ending at a jagged cut. That would have rendered the feather useless, had it been on a wing. Wings like Philza’s wings, which had dark feathers with white diamond patterns, and had been clipped so that he couldn’t fly properly if he escaped. And if one of Phil’s feathers was here…

  
  


Bad spun around, being greeted by the sight of a winged figure standing behind him. Before he could do anything though, Philza struck Bad’s legs with the sword, causing his legs to give out and practically fall onto Phil and the sword he stabbed through the demon hybrid’s chest.

  
  


Through the haze of pain washing over him, Bad felt himself get lowered surprisingly gently to the ground. As Philza walked out of his sight, Bad clutched the feather as though it would keep him from dying, save him from losing a life and the pain of respawn.

  
  


Spoiler: it didn’t.

  
  


-

  
  


Tommy woke up to the faint sound of someone collapsing to the ground, and for a second, he was thrown back into Phil’s basement house. He was locked in his room, and Philza was drugging Techno. He didn’t even notice he was starting to hyperventilate until he felt Techno pat his shoulder, snapping him back to reality.

  
  


“You okay?” Techno asked, worry breaking through the typical monotone of his voice.

  
  


“I think I heard something outside.”

  
  


“I’ll check out of the window, okay? It was probably nothing.” Techno stood up, and started crossing the marble floor to the blue stained window. He didn’t notice the dark silhouette shakily gliding straight into the window, until it collided with the glass and little pieces of sharp blue exploded into the room. 

  
  


Techno hadn’t even lowered his arm from where it was shielding his face from the glass when the hilt of a sword slammed into his head, and Tommy watched his brother fall to the floor, and a puddle of blood slowly start forming on the floor.  _ Was he even breathing anymore? Tommy couldn’t tell. _

  
  


Phil looked between his newly dead(?) son and Tommy, who had gone white as a sheet upon recognizing who exactly had just crashed through his window and attacked his brother. Phil stepped over Techno, not noticing the snow fox that shot away from the bed and out the slightly cracked open door. Tommy couldn’t move; he was frozen from the paralyzing terror coursing through him at the sight of his father. Everything got blurry and he didn’t know what was happening around him or to him, but a moment later (or was it hours later? Time didn’t seem to be working properly) his already blurry vision filled with black static at the edges, which closed in and he couldn’t see or feel anything aside from his lungs screaming for air and a strange tightness around his throat and then he was gone, gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Anyone wanna guess what happened?
> 
> Stick around for the Epilogue, the script, and maybe what happens next :)
> 
> If you want to write your own stories based off of mine, or continuing from where mine leaves off, go ahead! I would love to see and read them!
> 
> I was also kinda spacing out when writing this so if it doesn’t make sense, thats probably why.
> 
> Oh, and Phil is a cryptid with mind control or something here, apparently. Yea, even I didn't know that until one or two chapters ago, and I’m writing this.


	22. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad respawns.  
> Dream returns to his body.  
> Tubbo loses his friend. Again.  
> Tommy wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate description:  
> Para has a fun time describing respawn and bloodied broken glass.

Bad thought he knew pain, and knew what respawn felt like. But this… waves of fiery agony shuddered across his skin as he was torn apart, his bones broken, his very soul shredded to pieces, this was new. The difference between what he knew and remembered, and what he was experiencing now, was that in the manhunts and servers and all the other realms he had been in, there was no life count. But here… here, Bad was losing a vital part of himself, leaving a void that couldn’t be replaced and renewed in respawn. So when the World Magic started piecing him back together again, and it tried to heal over the life Bad had lost to Philza, it couldn’t. And so in place of the life, it brought him pain. His bones were pieced together like a morbid jigsaw puzzle, his muscles and skin sewn back into place, and leaving only a scar where the hole between his ribs that Phil’s sword had left behind was.

  
  


Even after he had become aware of the room around him, pristine marble walls and large blue glass windows that tinted the entire room a soft shade similar to the diamonds flecking Skeppy’s cheeks like freckles, Bad was unable to move from his bed. Phantom traces of heat flared out from the scar, right on the edge of burning, but not quite. Bad doesn’t know how long he is like that, barely aware of what is around him, before the pain fades back enough for him to move without it getting worse. But when one torture ends, another begins.

  
  


The sun had risen to late morning, meaning Bad had been out for at least twelve hours. Twelve hours that Techno and Tommy had been unprotected for, that Bad hadn’t been able to keep Phil away from them for. He threw himself off of his bed and sprinted down the hallways and stairs to the wing of the mansion where Techno and Tommy had been staying. He already knew something terrible had happened when he saw that the door was cracked open, and the light around the room wasn’t just solid swathes of blue, but warm sunlight flecked with thousands of shattered blue patches. Not to mention the smell. The scent of blood weaving out of the room and into the hall, carried by the gentle outside breeze.

  
  


Bad had prepared himself for what he would see when he entered the room, but he still hadn’t quite expected just how horrible it would be to see the shattered window and the thousands of shards of blue glass, shimmering against the marble floor like diamonds carelessly scattered around. Some of them were turned a horribly beautiful purple by the dark blood drying around them, ensnaring and securing them into long and unbound pink hair. Techno looked like a fallen god in that moment- surrounded by the blood he so craved and worshipped, tainting and claiming the pristine and beautifully dangerous glass tangled in his hair and piercing his scarred and battle worn skin.

  
  


But no, he wasn’t fallen or dead. If he were, then he would have respawned. He still had all of his three lives, so even if Phil had killed him, he wouldn’t be gone forever. Even so, Techno wasn’t out of danger yet. If something hurt but didn’t kill you, then it would be left to heal naturally. And if Techno hadn’t died from the gash in his head presumably left behind by Phil, then that meant he was at risk of infection, and he probably had a major concussion. Bad had to help Techno. Where Tommy was now would have to wait.

  
  


-

  
  


Dream was floating in the space just outside of his mind, but still inside his body. It was horrifying, not being in control. He had noticed the unfamiliar whisperings in his ears and mind the moment he had arrived at the Execution Stage, but that was all they were, up until Philza had arrived. Whispers, no different from the ones he occasionally got when new people requested to enter his realm, his world, his SMP. The magic of the world that was his to manipulate, to tug at and bend to his will to a certain extent. Mostly limited to the whisperings of the comings and goings of people, and allowing them to do so. But they weren’t.

  
  


Despite his experiences being both a Cryptid and Dreamon Contracted, he hadn’t been able to defend himself against the fractured and corrupted control Phil had forced onto him, forcing Dream out of his own mind and to a place where he could only watch as his body was used like a puppet, no more than a tool to use and throw away when it lost its purpose. It was quite an unsettling thing to experience, being forced out of yourself. Like you are a cup, and someone started dropping rocks into it. They fill you up past capacity, and the water, or you, start to overflow and spill out, making room for the  _ other _ that now lives in your body with you. It was ironic, almost funny even. Dream was a manipulator by both nature and power, and often used it to nudge and shape people to his liking, to place them in roles that benefited him and left him in control. But how quickly that control had been taken from him, how defenseless he had been against something that was a thousand times worse than what he did to others, if only because it demanded to be noticed and left you empty and shattered when it left.

  
  


That thought brought him back to reality, to what was happening around the body he was struggling to make his way back to. Sam had come into the cell he had been left in to check on him, make sure he was still breathing. Desperately, Dream threw all of the  _ him  _ that he had control of in the general direction of his own mind, and was surprised when it worked. Just as surprised as Sam was, when the body that had been so still and motionless for so long suddenly moved, his legs jolting like he had been falling, and his hands flying to grip the side of the prison cot he was laying on.

  
  


Dream breathed heavily, trying to calm himself down. He was okay. He was in control of himself again. He wasn’t floating in that endforsaken plane just outside of his mind. Calm, calm.

  
  


When Sam realized Dream had calmed down to the point where he could talk, he went to ask Dream what the  _ fuck had happened back at the execution _ , but he didn’t get a chance. Because right in the open doorway to Dream’s cell was Laelaps, paws stained red with blood, and her mismatched eyes staring into Sam’s own like she had something to show him. He stood up and followed the fox out of the cell, shutting the door behind him and locking it shut. Before he left to follow Laelaps to what she wanted to show him, he turned back to Dream one last time. “When I get back, we’re talking about what happened.”

  
  


Dream already dreaded having that conversation, admitting he had a weakness and Philza had taken advantage of it. Admitting he wasn’t as all-knowing as he claimed to be. Admitting he had been bested by a short old man with wings in his own game.

  
  


-

  
  


Tubbo was on edge as he walked through a stretch of woods, looking for any trace of Phil, that he and Fundy might be on the right path to find his best friend’s father. Every dark feather Tubbo sees, every shadow that looks too big or too deep or too much like wings had him thinking,  _ this is it, we’ve found him, here he is. _

  
  


None of them were actually signs of Phil, though. The feathers were the wrong color or too small, the shadows always empty and void of the person he and Fundy were looking for. Who they did find, however, was a very bloodied and panicked looking Bad running through the trees, his black and red clothes contrasting against the forest floor dappled with patches of warm early afternoon light.

  
  


“Bad? Why are you-” Bad cut Tubbo off, speaking over him.

  
  


“Where’s Fundy? I need him and his doctor training.” Bad needed a doctor? No shit, he was running around with blood on his pants and shirt and hands, as though he had been kneeling in a puddle of blood. Blood. He was supposed to be guarding Tommy and Techno. And he was covered in blood, and not guarding Tommy and Techno. And despite all the blood on him, Tubbo couldn’t see any signs of actual injury, where the blood could have came from. But he needed a doctor.

  
  


Fundy had heard the commotion, and the fox hybrid came sprinting through a bush, stopping next to Bad and Tubbo before shifting to his human form. “What's going on? You need me? What’s with all the blood?” 

  
  


Fundy was given a hurriedly spoken response before the excessively tall demon grabbed his wrist, and started practically dragging him back in the general direction of his mansion. “Tommy is gone, and Technoblade is unconscious. He has a pretty bad gash on his head, and I can’t get it to stop bleeding. I left him in a different bedroom and wrapped the gash, but it was already starting to bleed through when I left to get you.”

  
  


“Wait, what do you mean Tommy is  _ gone _ ?” Tubbo asked, running after the other two. He couldn’t be gone, Tubbo had just got him back!

  
  


“Phil attacked us early last night. I would have came to find you two earlier, but I was respawning.” Tubbo winced, remembering how painful respawning had been for him, and how bad the phantom pains of getting blown up with fireworks had been. He briefly wondered how Bad had died, before his thoughts were dragged back to Tommy, and Tommy being gone, and Phil having taken him again. At least the first time Phil had kidnapped Tommy, he had been sane enough to feed Tommy and not hurt him. But who knew what would happen to him this time?

  
  


-

  
  


Tommy’s throat was sore, and his head hurt, and so did his forearms, legs, waist, and shoulders. Why did it feel like he had been strangled, whacked in the head, and then tied to the most uncomfortable wooden chair imaginable?

  
  


Maybe because he  _ was _ , in fact, tied to a wooden chair, and because he  _ had _ been forced into unconsciousness by his father. But no tingly spider potions this time. It was quite difficult to make potions after all, when you can barely tell what reality you’re in.

  
  


Tommy slowly opened his eyes, greeted by soft shadows and the warm flickering light cast by a torch. He was in a cave, by the looks of it. A lock of hair fell down over his eyes, and Tommy went to brush it out of the way, except he didn’t. He couldn’t move his arm at all, because of the near excessive amount of rope tying his forearms to the arms of the chair. He couldn’t lean forwards, because of the ropes wrapped around his upper arms, torso, and waist. He couldn’t even move his legs, which, big surprise, were tied to the legs of the chair. Wow. Phil really went all-out with this one, didn’t he? The only thing Tommy could really move was his head, but even then, it wasn’t like Tommy could escape by violently shaking his head. 

  
  


What the ability to look around  _ did _ allow him, however, was to see Phil sitting to Tommy’s left, a few feet away. He had his arms wrapped around his legs, and his wings carelessly splayed out on the floor. He was talking to himself, no, more arguing with himself, and he was shaking. He also kept coughing, black inklike stuff coating his teeth and spilling down his face.

  
  


Almost as though Philza had sensed Tommy’s eyes on him, he suddenly turned his head to look directly at Tommy, and his muttering got louder. Tommy could hear what his father was saying now.

  
  


“...I have to keep you safe… safe from myself… biggest threat… but I need him… can’t protect him without him… but can’t do that… why? Why? Why not? Who is the biggest threat? Who? I have to remember… remember, remember what? Nothing, nothing. Keep Tommy safe, perfectly safe and happy. Perfect, perfect?” Phil stopped talking quite suddenly, though his mind was nowhere near as quiet as the cave had gotten in that moment. 

  
  


Tommy would be safe, perfect, perfect, if Phil could make Tommy his. Tommy would be safe, safe, safe. Tommy couldn’t hurt himself, nobody could hurt Tommy. Phil reached out for Tommy’s mind, a bright point on a silent canvas. Spiking with confused terror as it sensed something  _ other _ but so, so familiar curl and wrap around it like a smothering blanket, whispering and weaving a new reality for Tommy, and by extension, Phil.

  
  


_ Tommy couldn’t tell if he was screaming or not. He heard his voice crack and tremble, even as he felt his lips curl into a smile. Tommy couldn’t tell if he was in a cave, having his mind and reality shredded around him, or if he was home with his father, happily listening to Philza read him a bedtime story. Tommy couldn’t tell if he was sixteen, almost seventeen, or if he was eight. Tommy didn’t know if Philza’s wings were clipped and patchy, feathers plucked from nervous habits and falling to the ground, or beautiful and perfect and carefully taken care of, neatly folded close to his back. _

  
  


_ “Dad? Can you turn my night light on? The dark scares me.” _

  
  


_ “Of course. Sleep well, Toms.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)  
> I’ll post the script in a few hours.  
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> P.s: I had a dream that I was driving down a mountainy forest road and C!Philza was dead on the side of the road. I stole his hat.


	23. The script

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its literally just the script.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the script I wrote and was going off of for the story. You can see where I went off script or left things out by comparing the script to what actually happens in the story.
> 
> I copy/pasted this from my phone’s notes app, so its formatted a little strangely.

Plot:

Funny chapter names  
\- [x] -This tea tastes like drugs (changed to spiders)

\- [x] -Kidnapping your independent teenage son isn’t very poggers  
Tommy wakes up and casually flips out, phil comes back and explains to tommy he ‘had to’ kidnap him to keep him ‘safe’ from the dangers of the world, he panics and 

\- [x] -Why does all the food look sad and gray?  
•Philza makes dinner  
•Tommy is in denial  
•tommy tries to act as normal as he can in the situation  
•tommy tries to hold a normal conversation  
•tommy jokes about the depressing looking food  
•tommy refuses to drink the sparkly grayish water  
•tommy eats some of the food, tastes the spidery flavor, and tries to make a run for the trap door, but he only makes it a few feet out before a splash potion trap is set off, and phil retrieves him  
•phil jokes about having to make the trap door lock from the inside as well now, while he carries Tommy back to the kitchen  
•Tommy eats his meal

\- [x] -Who locks literally all the kitchen cabinets?  
•Tommy wakes up after falling asleep due to not being able to do anything anyway, and goes to the kitchen to check for possible weapons  
•Tommy finds all the cabinets are locked  
•Tommy finds a wooden(because glass could break, and glass shards are dangerous) cup by the kitchen sink  
•Tommy fills up the cup with water, and decides to wait for Phil to come back again, splash him to surprise/temporarily blind him before he locks the trap door again, avoid the splash trap, and escape  
•Phil returns not long after he decides that, and the splashing goes according to plan, but it doesn’t stop phil for as long as he had planned, and he only manages to get half out of the trap door before phil pulls him back down  
•phil tells him that if he keeps trying to escape, he’ll have to lock Tommy in his room while he’s gone, or until Tommy gets trustworthy enough to not try running.  
•tommy tries to fight phil, but he’s not strong enough, and ends up giving up  
•Tommy sulks and watches Phil read, angry that Philza can be so happy right now.  
•Phil doesn’t want Tommy to be so upset and lonely all the time, so he promises to find Tommy a pet fox, specifically because foxes remind him of his friends back in L’manburg (fundy, niki had a pet fox, tubbo had a pet fox)  
•Tommy gives in a little, though he still hates it there.

\- [x] -A step back   
•Tubbo thinks about Tommy suddenly leaving to look for totems, and wonders why Tommy didn’t invite him to come along or even tell him, as well as why Tommy still hasn’t come back, two weeks after leaving for his mansion quest.  
•Tubbo walks around L’manburg, talks to all the cabinet members  
•Tubbo talks to Dream for a little, having been asked where Tommy is. Dream seems doubtful or unsatisfied with Tubbo’s answer. Tubbo begins to think something’s up.  
•Tubbo talks to Ghostbur, asking if he mentioned anything about totems or going to look for mansions, Ghostbur says the last time he saw Tommy was when he was going to see Phil  
•Tubbo thinks something is very wrong here, but can’t do anything about it, because he’s busy with reconstructing and improving L’manburg. He decides to wait a few more weeks before doing anything.

\- [x] -Things are getting worse   
*reminder to put a trigger warning for self harm and panic attacks*  
•Tommy rarely gets time out of his room when he’s capable of doing things and phil isn’t there  
•he has a mild panic attack when he thinks he hears Phil unlocking the trap door, but its just Laelaps(pet fox)  
•Tommy is in such a state that he tries to catch himself on fire with the fireplace, but he changes his mind when Laelaps tries to pull his arm out of the grate  
•Tommy sits and pets the fox for a little, eventually crying into the fox’s fur and hugging them  
•Phil comes in a while later after Tommy falls asleep with Laelaps, and tries to carry him back to his room, but Tommy wakes up and lashes out, but he’s too weak to do any damage, and Phil just hugs him and wraps him in his wings until Tommy gives up and starts crying again.  
•Tommy has stopped trying to hide his emotions and openly shows he would rather be dead than here, and mentions that Laelaps is the only thing keeping him from (successfully) trying to end himself  
•Tommy asks how long he’s been down here and Phil reluctantly tells him it’s been about two months by now.

\- [x] -Who needs food anyway?  
*trigger warning for starving yourself*  
•Tommy is sitting for another meal, staring at the food and debating his life at this point  
•Tommy asks Phil about how Tubbo is doing, and Phil doesn’t really respond (maybe talks about the bee house instead?)  
•Tommy goes back to staring at his food, this meal reminding him of talking to Wilbur when they were children, and Wilbur telling him that its possible to survive about a week without food, and is willing to do almost anything to avoid being trapped in his own body for hours after every meal (and can’t help thinking that if he does die, it wouldn’t be so bad)  
•tommy leaves the table, choosing instead to hide in his room  
•Phil calls after him, but doesn’t follow Tommy  
(Presumed timeskip to several days later)  
•Tommy can’t stand without getting lightheaded, and Phil is getting visibly upset, as well as Laelaps acting very concerned about him and never leaving his side.  
•Tommy passes out in the hallway, coming to to find a panicking Phil setting him down in one of the armchairs  
•tommy blacks out again, this time waking up to Phil shaking him, and then basically forcing Tommy to eat something, which didn’t taste like spiders for once. Tommy wonders if he’s lost the ability to taste it anymore.

\- [x] -I can’t walk alone anymore  
*note: tommy starts calling phil ‘dad’ in this chapter*  
•After tommy recovered enough from not eating, the weakness potions got stronger, and Tommy tried getting up one morning to find he wasn’t strong enough to properly walk alone, and manages to get to the library room by leaning on the wall  
•Tommy falls and struggles to get back up, finding he can’t  
•Laelaps runs over and stays with him until Phil comes back, and Tommy reluctantly tells Phil what has happened, and requests something to help him get around on his own  
•Phil denies this and insists he can just support Tommy, but Tommy refuses to let Phil get near him, and sensing his fear of Phil, Laelaps growls at him  
•Phil reluctantly agrees to try and come up with something for Tommy to use  
(Timeskip/chapter break)  
•Phil comes back about a week later with several books, and some materials (carved wooden wheels, slices of wood to be used as a frame, metal pins to hold it together)  
•Phil tells Tommy about what it is and how he’s going to make it  
•Tommy is grateful that Phil was able to find something to allow Tommy a little more independence in his life, despite hoping Phil would just make the weakness potions just a little less potent.

\- [x] -A normal meal? Maybe things aren’t so bad  
•Tommy begs Phil to let him have a normal meal, and Phil relents, though he makes Tommy agree to do family bonding things after the meal  
•Tommy gets to enjoy completely normal baked potato  
•Phil brushes out tommy’s hair, mentioning how it’s starting to get long, and when Tommy asks if he can cut it shorter, Phil says he doesn’t want to bring sharp things into the room unless Tommy is ‘protected’, or on weakness potions. Tommy doesn’t ask again.  
•Tommy plays with Laelaps and teaches her to play fetch (phil finally brought in a proper toy for her, rip phil’s bookshelves)  
•Tommy thinks that maybe things aren’t so bad here, and maybe he actually is safer here, despite it being a little lonely and not being allowed outside

\- [x] -Tommy?  
*note to add a statement that the fluff is platonic and incest is creepy*  
•Techno is sorting his chests or trading with his villagers when phil shows up  
•Phil asks Techno to drink a strange potion  
•techno inspects it and decides maybe he doesn’t want to drink it  
•he starts to go back to doing whatever he was, but Phil tackles him to the floor and forces him to drink it  
•Techno is confused and starts to make a joke about not thinking the potion was that big of a deal, but when he tries to get up he can’t, and everything starts getting fuzzy  
(Chapter break)  
•Tommy is in the library room, he hears Phil outside the trap door, but he sounds like he’s carrying something heavy  
•Tommy is confused and wonders if Phil’s bringing another table down or something  
•Tommy is surprised and a little afraid as he sees Phil carry Techno down into the double basement  
•Phil leaves Techno on the couch next to Tommy, and when he asks how long Techno’s been knocked out, he says he should be waking up pretty soon before leaving  
•Tommy watches Techno and talks to Laelaps about him, and telling her about the myth her name comes from  
•Techno wakes up confused and on edge, but very surprised when he sees Tommy, his little brother who has been missing for months now, sitting in a wheelchair with a fox in some kind of weird library room  
•Techno asks Tommy where he’s been this whole time (about 4 1/2 months since he ‘left’)  
•Tommy tells Techno about how Phil’s gone off the deep end and kidnapped him, and how he’s been on weakness potions for so long, he can’t walk anymore.  
•Tommy starts crying, having held onto a small hope that Techno could have followed Phil one day and found him, but now that can’t happen  
•Techno doesn’t really know what to do in this situation so he kinda awkwardly hugged Tommy and let him cry on his shoulder until he calmed down enough to talk again  
•Techno asks Tommy if he wants to move to the couch and sit there instead, and Tommy agrees  
•They sit there for a while, Tommy practically sitting on Techno’s lap, and techno notices that one of Tommy’s hands looks scarred, and when he lifts it up so he can get a better look at the burn scars, he feels Tommy’s breathing speed up, so he doesn’t say anything. Techno wants to know what happened, but he recognizes that now isn’t the time to ask, and Tommy will tell him when he’s ready.  
•Tommy falls asleep at some point, and Techno ends up dozing off with tommy held tight in his arms as though he would vanish, something he hasn’t done with Tommy since Tommy was very young and would get nightmares, unable to fall asleep again without someone with him.

\- [x] -Following Phil  
•Tubbo summarizes what L’manburg’s cabinet has been up to recently (focusing on finding Tommy because he still hasn’t returned)  
•Bad and Dream tell Tubbo that they’ve spotted Phil carrying something in a snow biome, and they lost him in a forest, but they did find a cabin while trying to find him again  
•Tubbo starts to go look for his cabinet, but Dream and Bad tell him he has to go now, that he really needs to see what they found /now/.  
•Tubbo agrees, and they boat over to the tundra and walk to the cabin  
•They see Carl’s in his pen, which means Techno must have been here (and still is, or he left in a hurry)  
•Inside, they find a chest tipped over and some strands of long pink hair caught in a hinge, as well as Techno’s boar skull mask thrown to the side, and what looks like splatters of some kind of potion on the floor, almost as though someone tried to cough it back up after drinking it, still wet and puddled up  
•they decide that something horrible is going on, and Phil’s at the center of everything.   
•Looking around some more, they find footprints in the snow, and they follow them into the pine forest.  
•They stop when they come across what looks like the entrance to a base or bunker, and decide this is as much as they can do today, as they don’t know if there’s any traps in the bunker, and their not equipped to enter it if there is.

\- [x] -You can’t come out until I’m sure its safe  
•Techno wakes up again after falling asleep on the couch with Tommy to Tommy being pulled out of his arms and carried down the hall by Phil  
•Techno tries to get up and get to Tommy because tommy has woken up and he’s crying and he sounds so scared, but the potion Philza gave him back at the cabin was made to keep him weak for a while after he woke up, and so he falls to his knees  
•he can hear Tommy shriek in terror and cry hysterically as he hears phil say “I’m sorry, but you can’t be out until I’m sure it’s safe.”  
•Techno briefly thinks Phil is talking about something in the rooms, until he realizes it’s /him/ phil is worried about  
•He tries to get away when Phil comes back towards him, remembering what Tommy told him about the weakness potions, but it doesn’t work, and when he tries to fight Phil, he ends up falling backwards onto the couch  
•Phil pulls a potion out of his pocket, and though it’s similar in color to the one Phil gave him before, it’s not quite the same (stronger variant of what he puts in Tommy’s food bc its not watered down with actual food maybe?), and tells him that he can either drink it himself, or Phil will ‘help’ him drink it, like he did last time.  
•Techno refuses to drink it, thinking he’s more prepared this time and can stop Phil, but he underestimates Phil’s strength, and phil manages to get Techno to drink the potion, though he did cough some of it up again  
•Techno feels numbness spread through his body again, but it fades away and is replaced with warmth, and his head feels... fuzzy and content, and he also can’t remember what he was doing before now.  
(Chapter break)  
•Tommy, in his desperation, managed to drag himself to the door, where he listened to phil talking, and then what sounded like a scuffle, sounds of protest, and then coughing... then silence  
•Tommy is crying pretty hard and curled into a ball now, barely noticing Laelaps as she nudges him with a paw and tries to cheer him up, too worried about Techno and mumbling nonsensical pleas that Phil would leave Techno alone  
•Tommy flinches when he feels hands scoop him up and carry him bridal style, not needing to open his eyes to know that its Phil carrying him, and not Techno, because Techno smells like snow and ice and blood and baked potatoes, whereas Phil smells like earth and stone and campfires in summer  
•He scrambles across the couch to get to where Techno is now half slumped over the arm of the chair, his eyes unfocused, and even when he did look at Tommy, his eyes remained glazed, and his expression both confused and filled with an uncharacteristic contentment  
•he cries harder as Techno reaches for him, the movement lacking any of the grace his brother usually had  
•Tommy hugged his (high out of his mind on who knows what) brother, hugging him tighter and crying harder when he hears Techno try to say something, his voice slurred.

\- [x] -Do you think we can escape?  
•Tommy manages to catch Techno during one of the few times Phil hasn’t drugged him to the point he can barely process what’s around him or locked him in his room, and Tommy asks Techno if he thinks they can escape  
•Techno looks at Tommy incredulously and reminds Tommy that at the moment, he can’t even stand, much less run, so Techno would have to carry him out, and after being drugged at least once to twice daily for what he assumes has been weeks, not to mention the spiked food, he doubts he can still run very far while holding Tommy.  
•Tommy hates that what Techno is saying makes sense, and like he has been doing quite a lot recently, he starts to blink tears out of his eyes  
•Techno tries to distract Tommy with Laelaps, mentioning how he hasn’t been properly introduced to the fox while he was in his right mind  
•Tommy smiles and tells Techno all about her and her favorite games, and how he named her after the dog in an ancient greek myth he remembered being told by Techno when he was younger  
•Techno is surprised Tommy remembered the myth, and tells him as much while petting Laelaps  
•Techno hears the trap door open and the ladder creak as Phil came down, and noticed how Tommy flinched at each sound, angry that his dad did this to his once arguably too brave and too fearless brother who rarely cried, now an emotional mess who was always one step away from crying, and terrified of the sound of locking doors and hinges squeaking.  
•Techno stood up and took a moment to balance properly, then picked Tommy up off of where he had been sitting on the ground, placing him on Techno’s bed  
•Techno then stood inside his doorway, crossing his arms and preparing for the usual daily struggle to avoid drinking whatever was in that bottle, refusing to dwell on how it was getting easier for Phil to get him down, how he didn’t fight as much anymore, and how it was getting easier and easier to slip away into the near catatonic state the potion put him in  
•Phil seems surprised that Tommy was in Techno’s room, but ignores his pleading to leave Techno alone, that he’ll do anything Phil wants so long as Techno is allowed to stay like this and not drink the potion (their agreement to silence forgotten in favor of trying to spare his brother several hours of being forced into a state he said he hated.  
•Techno glares at Phil, and tries to keep him away by shoving him back, but its a pretty pitiful attempt, and it barely does anything to keep Phil from pinning him and getting him to drink the potion  
•Tommy watches in horror as Techno’s struggles get weaker, and as the now familiar daze comes over Techno. Tommy wonders what it’s like, and if it’s better than being aware of what’s happening. He can’t help but think that Techno looks a lot happier than he used to be, even if it is because of some strange drug he was forced to take.  
•Phil tries to explain himself to Tommy, that he had to do this to keep them both safe, because Techno is too volatile and dangerous when he’s normal, and it would take too much materials to make weakness potions strong enough to disable him like he does for Tommy(Disable as in make him not dangerous/be too weak to fight), but Tommy isn’t having it, and tells Phil he’s just making it easier to keep them trapped there, and taking away Techno’s ability to tell that what’s going on is wrong  
•Techno’s just slumped over in the corner, staring with unfocused eyes at the wall across from him, with a content, bordering on happy smile.  
•Phil, now upset and sad that Tommy won’t listen to him or see what he sees tells Tommy that maybe he’s ‘fixed’ Techno, and Techno can see that this /is/ better and safer than being outside.  
•Tommy yells at Phil a little more, and tells him that this (pointing at Techno) isn’t his brother, and Phil, in an attempt to make Tommy happier, says he’ll allow Techno to be normal for a few hours every once in a while, but only with supervision.

\- [x] -Bonding (cut chapter)  
•Phil decided to try and let Techno off of the potions for a few hours each day, though he only allows it if he supervises Techno, and keeps him locked in his room while he waits for the potion to wear off  
•Techno wakes up to being alone in his room, not high, and with a locked door, which has become routine to Techno, though he almost prefers to wake up still high, because then he’s allowed to sleep with Tommy, and he knows Tommy is safe when he wakes up. (Tommy also helps keep the nightmares away, however much he hates to admit it.  
•He gets out of his bed and knocks on the door, waiting until he hears footsteps, a click, and then the door swings open. Phil greets him with a ‘sleep well, son?’ But Techno ignores him, walking past so he can get to Tommy.   
•Tommy, as he expected, was sitting on the couch, legs crossed. Techno sits in front of him, and Tommy starts brushing out Techno’s hair. If he closes his eyes, he can almost imagine he and Tommy are little kids again, Tommy begging Techno to let him try putting his hair up, and Techno relenting and allowing it.  
•Tommy finishes brushing out the tangles, and starts pulling the front of Techno’s hair back into a bun, leaving the back sections to hang down. His pink hair was now well past his waist, where he had usually kept it at. He was surprised Tommy remembered how to do some of the styles he would put Techno’s hair into, seeing as Techno hadn’t let him do any of them since they were six years younger, and Techno left home.  
•Techno stands up when Tommy pats him on the head a few times, his way of telling Techno he had finished, because they both had taken to not speaking around Phil, at least when they could avoid it.  
•Techno sits down on the couch and takes the brush from Tommy, brushing out his brother’s wavy blond hair before putting Tommy’s hair up into a similar style as what Tommy did for him, though he did a ponytail instead of a bun. Tommy’s hair wasn’t quite long enough yet for a bun.

\- [x] -I don’t know how long we can survive like this  
(Note to put a tw for mentioned suicide)  
•Tommy is sitting with high™️ techno, letting him brush out his hair and make clumsy little braids in his (now just longer than his shoulders) blond hair  
•Tommy starts talking to Techno because even if Techno is high and not really aware of whats going on, talking to him is still better than talking to Phil  
•Tommy talks about how he doesn’t know how much longer he can handle being here before he either finds a way to kill himself, he becomes non-responsive and stops living in any meaningful way, or breaks and stops being able to tell that this is a horrible way to live  
•Tommy also tells Techno that he knows he isn’t fighting the potion anymore, but he doesn’t blame him, being aware is pretty terrible, and it’s probably easier to stay sane when he is aware if he can’t remember what’s happening to him  
•Tommy tells Techno he’s glad Techno is here with him even if it means he has to be kept in a catatonic state, as he likes having someone to talk to, and that he hopes Techno doesn’t hate him for wanting company and to not be alone with Phil.  
•He noticed that Techno isn’t braiding his hair anymore, and turns around to see Techno tearing up and trying to keep the tears from falling, the effects of the potion clearly starting to wear off enough for him to process Tommy’s words and react, but not enough to allow him control of his emotions or to fight off the haze clouding his mind.  
•Techno pulls Tommy into a hug, resting his chin on Tommy’s head and whispering that he’d never blame Tommy for wanting a friend in this kind of situation, and that he’s glad Tommy isn’t alone here with Phil.

\- [x] -How long have we been down here?  
•Dream manages to catch Phil leaving the bunker, having been camping out near the entrance with Bad  
•They both break into the base, and start exploring it in an attempt to find Tommy or Techno, or any signs that they might still be alive, as they’ve guessed that the brothers might already be dead  
•They eventually reach the bottom most floor after avoiding several traps, all potion traps designed not to hurt, but to disable whoever was trying to break in... or escape  
•Their walking down a hall when they reach what seems like a dead end, nothing down there aside from shelves holding tools and supplies  
•Dream is about to suggest they leave when he notices a chain and padlock attached to loops in the floor, seemingly having no purpose, though on closer inspection, he notices that what he thought was just a strangely cut section of bricks was actually a disguised trap door  
•He and bad look over the shelves and find a key, when they try it on the padlock, it works and they slowly lift up the door, surprised to see a short ladder and what seems like a nicely lit room, though Bad is concerned by the sound of crying coming from inside.  
•they share a glance before Bad hurries down the ladder, leaving Dream to keep an eye out for Phil  
•Bad only takes a moment to figure out the crying is coming from the hallway, and the room that was the only door on its wall. He pushes open the door and finds Tommy sitting on the bed in the room with Techno, who seems oblivious to the teen crying into his shirt, and overall dead to the real world  
•Bad wonders what happened here- why Tommy flinched when he opened the door, why Techno looks higher than Quackity ever has, and why there’s a wheelchair next to the bed on Tommy’s side.  
•Bad’s heart breaks when Tommy finally looks over at him and his expression changes from fear and terror to distrustful hope, as though Bad was just an illusion, and he would disappear if Tommy did anything.  
•bad runs over to tommy, noticing how Techno’s dazed eyes flicked over to him, and how the hand Tommy wasn’t holding twitched, his fingers curling as though he wanted to protect Tommy, but couldn’t.  
•Bad asks how long they’ve been down there, and Tommy tells him he doesn’t know exactly how long, but he had been kidnapped the same day he left to visit Phil. He also tells Bad about how Techno is forced to drink a potion that makes him get like /this/, and that tommy has been eating spiked food long enough that he can’t walk anymore, and though Techno has been eating the same food, he’s still able to stumble around when he’s like this, but when he isn’t drugged, he can walk normally and can probably run still, not that the basement house is big enough to properly run anyway.  
•he asks if bad is going to save him, but Bad says he can’t right now, but he’ll come back with help and save them both, and he’ll do it soon.  
•dream calls Bad back out, saying they shouldn’t test their luck, and leave before Phil comes back.  
(Chapter break)  
•Tubbo is listening to Bad recount what he saw in the basement house, brought to near tears by hearing what has become of his best friend over the course of six months, and a mounting fear of what Phil is capable of, if he was able to bring the blood god to his knees so easily, and reduce him to a catatonic young adult barely capable of stumbling around the basement house he’s trapped in.  
•Tubbo, Dream, and Bad all agree they need to do something soon, before Tommy or Techno get even worse.

\- [x] -Half empty, half full. Either way, Techno’s half high  
•Tubbo is listening to Bad recount what he saw in the basement house, brought to near tears by hearing what has become of his best friend over the course of six months, and a mounting fear of what Phil is capable of, if he was able to bring the blood god to his knees so easily, and reduce him to a catatonic young adult barely capable of stumbling around the basement house he’s trapped in.  
•Tubbo, Dream, and Bad all agree they need to do something soon, before Tommy or Techno get even worse. Cue the speedrunning music as they leave to get more allies.  
(Chapter break)  
•Phil knows someone has entered the base and found Tommy and Techno, and knows that he has to move them  
•he spends a lot of time making potions and setting up better traps, now made to keep people out as well as in  
•Phil knows his kids have noticed the changes in how he’s acting, but the most he tells them is he’s setting up ‘more safety’.   
•Phil comes down with the normal potion for Techno but also another one that looks different (a much stronger version of what he used to kidnap Tommy and Techno)  
•Phil finds Tommy and Techno sleeping together again but he manages to get Tommy away from Techno and almost out of the room before Tommy properly wakes up, but Phil keeps him from crying out to Techno and waking up the slightly more dangerous man.  
•Phil gets Tommy to drink the different potion, which very quickly knocks him out, leaving him asleep and quite dead to the world. By now, Techno has woken up, and Phil goes to unlock his room’s door, then proceeds to try and pin down his /very angry/ child.  
•Phil eventually manages to get Techno out and to stop moving enough to start re-drugging him, but the ruckus Techno was making was enough to hide the sound of Bad and Dream breaking the Trap Door and jumping down, Bad coming down the hall just in time to see Techno swat away the half-drank potion, spilling it on himself and the carpet  
•Bad knocks Phil off of Techno and pins him long enough for dream to take over, telling Bad to check on Techno and Tubbo and Sam to find Tommy (They came down after Bad and Dream, Bad wanting Sam’s help with disabling the splash traps, Phil is yelling at them to stay away from his kids  
•Bad makes sure Techno isn’t dead, though he’s not sure Techno is in a much better state, barely able to focus on Bad before he starts trying to pet his ears, giving him a childish smile  
•Tubbo comes out of Techno’s room and shouts to Dream and bad that they found Tommy, but he’s unconscious and not waking up, Phil starts laughing manically at this  
•Sam comes out of the room a minute later with Tommy in his arms, the only sign that he wasn’t dead being the steady rise and fall of his chest  
•at the sight of his brother, Techno remembers he’s supposed to be protecting his brother, though he can’t remember what from, and manages to shove Bad off of himself and stand, tripping over his own feet as he tries to reach his brother in a panic.  
•Bad grabs him and keeps Techno standing, but doesn’t let him attack Sam, and tells Aam to get Tommy and Tubbo out of the bunker, and that he’ll bring out Techno  
•Bad asks dream and fundy (he came down after everyone else) if they had it handled, and Dream says yes, so Bad lets Sam, Tommy, and Tubbo leave, before convincing Techno to climb the ladder and leave the basement. He watches as Techno climbs out, following him, but they don’t make it far before whatever burst of energy that allowed Techno to push bad off of himself and stand runs out, and Bad has to carry Techno out of the base.

\- [x] -That was traumatizing  
•Techno and Tommy stay in Bad and Skeppy’s mansion because it’s big enough that they can both recover there, and the halls are wide enough to allow Tommy’s wheelchair through, and the outside is safe and flat, unlike L’manburg, where the houses are all smallish and all of the paths are literally right over a crater filled with water  
•Techno recovered from Phil’s potion about half a day later, though he still had the lasting effects of being on who knows what for every day for at least five months, becoming very fidgety and on edge, though he was never violent unless he saw Dream, Sam, or Tubbo enter the room, thinking they were Phil, and they learn not to wear green around him. (Sam just wears a yellow jacket, and that works for Techno)  
•Tommy on the other hand stayed unconscious for a few days, Techno refusing to leave him during those days. (Everyone visiting saw that he seemed to get more and more tired as the days went on, but nobody said anything.)  
•Tommy finally awoke after a few days, surprised at the light flooding into the room from the blue tinted windows, and the white room very different in comparison to the dark spruce wood that made up the basement house. Since he didn’t remember how he got to Bad’s mansion, he thought it was a dream at first, and it took a few hours to convince him that it was real and not a dream.  
•Tommy was still really exhausted and tired from processing the poison and weakness from the potion Phil forced him to drink, and so Bad brought in food, which Techno took and began to feed to Tommy. Everyone in the room was shocked to varying degrees, none of them really knowing how much Techno and Tommy had bonded when they were kidnapped, and surprised to see the Blood God acting so caring towards the brother they all were under the impression he hated.  
•Bad left and took Tubbo with him, leaving Techno with Tommy as he had requested. When bad came back half an hour later to make sure Tommy was asleep, he wasn’t that surprised to see Tommy curled into Techno, and Techno wrapping his arms around his brother protectively as they slept.  
•Bad had suspected that Techno didn’t want to sleep alone because he would have nightmares (Techno had told Bad about how he would sometimes wake up with Phil taking Tommy, or wake up to no Tommy at all, and be terrified of what Phil had done to Tommy, even though it was usually nothing), and he also knew Techno wasn’t the kind of person to ask for help, and maybe knew that waking up with someone who wasn’t Tommy would make things worse.

\- [x] -Dad  
•Tommy and Techno have expressed a desire to Bad and Sam that they want to visit their dad and talk to him. Bad tries to talk them out of it, and Sam just makes sure they know what their doing.   
•Tubbo wants to go with them, but Sam says he can’t; he normally wouldn’t let both Tommy and Techno in at the same time, but their a special case. Sam also promises Tubbo he’ll keep an eye on them, and make sure Phil doesn’t hurt them.  
•Tubbo relents, but he’s jealous that Technoblade spends more time with Tommy than he gets to, the pair literally never separating. If tommy is going somewhere, then Techno is always there as well, either walking with Tommy, or pushing his chair.  
•They enter the Prison, both of them stiffening when they came close enough for the fatigue effect to wash over them. They still enter, though. Sam makes them leave all their things in a locker, including Tommy’s wheelchair, because it could potentially get damaged in the checkpoints, or potentially used as a weapon by Phil when they get to his cell.  
•Sam leads them through the checkpoints, apologizing in advance when he uses a very strong weakness potion on both of them, just a protocol he has to follow while checking them over for weapons. It wouldn’t do for a visitor to sneak in a weapon, and then kill Sam and potentially set Phil free, even though he doubted the pair would want to do that, despite the potential Stockholm syndrome the two might have developed. The potions wear off completely within a minute, and they continue through several checkpoints, including a lava checkpoint Techno carries Tommy through, passing through the lava on a flying machine.  
•When they get to the end, they pass over another lava checkpoint, finally at Phil’s cell. They told Sam before that they didn’t want him to allow Phil to approach them, so when he drops the lava barrier back down, he doesn’t lower the netherite barrier separating them from Phil, who had been sitting in the corner, watching them.  
•When the lava barrier descended completely, Phil notes how Techno has to carry tommy, and how that’s proof Tommy is too weak to be outside safely, though Techno is quick to point out that it was Phil who gave Tommy all the potions that kept him bedridden and allowed his muscles to atrophy, and how he was doing it to Techno as well, though unlike Tommy, he kept Techno drugged up for as long and as often as he could  
•Phil tells Techno he only did it to make sure Techno wasn’t able to hurt Tommy or himself, but Techno retorts that the only thing the drugs were doing was making him easier for Phil to manipulate, and making it harder for him to try and escape.  
•Phil stands up and flares his wings out as much as he can, and Techno and Tommy notice for the first time that his primaries have all been clipped so he can’t fly, as well as the wings having binds keeping them from properly unfolding, as well as serving as anchors for chains to keep him secured to the back wall of the prison cell. They also notice that his ankles are chained, and their also hooked to the cell wall. Even his arms are shackled together, his entire forearms encased in netherite and linked by chains.  
•The brothers tell Sam they want to go back now, as Phil has started trying to reach them, pulling against the chains with no regard to how it forced his wings back and caused the ankle cuffs to dig into his skin.  
•The brothers leave quickly, Tommy having begin to cry, and Techno just holding him tight until they were out, asking Sam to bring Tommy’s wheelchair back when he had time, as Techno was just going to carry Tommy back to Bad’s mansion.  
•Laelaps greets them at the entrance to Bad’s mansion, having been playing fetch with Fundy, Niki, Ranboo, and Tubbo  
•Techno watches Tommy and his friends, when Dream and Bad approach him. They remind him that he and Tommy aren’t fine yet, and they should try to get Tommy back on his feet, as well as get Techno’s strength back up.   
•Bad suggests that Fundy and Niki help Tommy try to regain proper use of his legs, and Dream suggests Techno spar with him until he’s gotten back to his former strength.   
•Techno accepts, though he tells them both that he’s not going to leave Tommy with them alone.   
•They accept this, and Techno leaves them to whisper what he agreed with Bad and Dream about, and Tommy is ecstatic about doing exercises to hopefully rebuild the muscles in his legs again.

\- [x] -Recovering isn’t fun  
•Tommy has regrets. Tommy regrets agreeing to doing rehabilitation exercises, because their difficult and they don’t seem like their going anywhere. He’s been working on them with Fundy and Niki for what feels like years, and even with healing and regeneration potions (he hated them for obvious reasons) and Bad and Fundy trying magic to speed up the process, nothing much was happening.   
•He had reached a point where he could actually move his legs again, and stand with someone supporting him, but he could barely walk even with support.   
•Tommy is sitting, waiting with Laelaps for another of Bad and Fundy’s questionable ritual spells, when Bad and Fundy come in with a sparkle in their eyes, and say they want to try something else today.  
•They take Laelaps and have her sit in the middle of a mandala on the ground, and start doing their ritual thing to her, but its different than what they would do to Tommy normally  
•Laelaps seemed to shimmer, almost like he was looking at her through a blurry lens, then the shimmering stopped and she was the size of a small pony, her back level with his waist if he were standing up straight  
•Bad and Fundy explained they had basically enchanted her to be able to change size if a specific phrase is spoken, similar to how Fundy could shapeshift into a fox but she couldn’t do it on her own, and that they didn’t just to this for shits(Language!) and giggles, but that they had a plan and surprise for Tommy that they can show him soon, but its not ready yet.

\- [x] -The Calm  
•Techno stands in a sandy circle Dream had set up, holding a surprisingly well-balanced but steadily getting worn down wooden sword, facing Dream and preparing for another training session  
•Techno thinks about how he actually likes training with Dream because not only is he not going easy on Techno and treating him like he’s made of glass or one step from going feral on all of them, but Techno can learn a new set of skills and how Dream fights  
•Dream asks him if he’s ready, and Techno responds with a nod  
•cue fight scene; Techno loses, but Dream used a new move that he proceeds to teach Techno on his request  
•They fight again, Techno puts his own spin on the move that manages to get him a win  
•They finish the training session and Techno teases Dream on his messily put up hair (he had let it grow out, not having enough time to cut it short. Dream jokingly suggests Techno does it for him because he’s ohh so clearly bad at doing it himself  
•Dream immediately regrets it when Techno sits him down and starts combing out his hair, refusing to let Dream leave until he’s finished with Dream’s ‘shitty, horribly taken care of and knot-ridden’ hair  
•Tommy comes over to the two from where he and Tubbo had been watching, and they all ended up not being allowed to leave until Techno gave them hairstyle makeovers

\- [x] -Execution; End?  
•The day of the execution arrives. Dream has been acting strange since he arrived at the execution stage, but Bad and Sam assume it’s just him being nervous or overly cautious. Should Phil escape, nobody would know what would happen.  
•Everything goes according to plan, with Sam successfully getting Phil to the stage where he would be executed from. Sam hooks the chains into the loops built into the wood. In contrast to how he acted when they first captured him, and how he had acted after Tommy and Techno’s visit, Phil is extremely docile, but not in a human way, more like how an animal would act; seemingly mindless and controlled by instinct.  
•They begin discussing how they should execute Phil while the broken man stares listlessly into the group of people (but not really, his eyes are pinned to Dream)  
•They eventually decide to kill him like how he killed Wilbur, as it has both symbolic meaning, and dying by sword is a death well-suited to a once-powerful warrior.  
•Dream requests to kill him, and the others agree, so Dream takes his sword and walks up to the former Angel of Death, raising the sword above Philza’s head, before bringing it down hard, but instead of killing Phil, he hits the chains and snaps them.   
•Philza takes the sword and runs, and Dream collapses to the ground like a discarded puppet, curling into a ball and holding his head  
•Sam and the others discuss what to do with Dream who apparently just freed their prisoner instead of killing him, and is now having some sort of breakdown.  
•They decide to put Dream into the prison for now until he can tell everyone exactly what just happened, and send a team out to try and find Phil. Everyone but bad ends up going, Bad choosing to stay behind and keep an eye on Tommy and Techno.  
(Chapter break)  
•Bad is standing outside his mansion, thinking about how he told Tommy and Techno that someone dangerous escaped their capture and that he’d appreciate it if they stayed inside the mansion, or at least within the mansion’s grounds until they recaptured him, and how, though the brothers had been curious, they had agreed.  
•Bad gets pulled out of his thoughts by hearing the sound of wings in the air, and spots a falling sooty black feather with a white diamond marking that was cut through by a jagged slice. Realizing it’s one of Phil’s clipped feathers, which meant Phil was here, Bad spins around to check on the mansion window that looks into Techno and Tommy’s room, but before he can do anything, Phil slashed his stolen sword at Bad’s legs, causing them to give out, then ran the demon hybrid through, just like he did to Wilbur. He catches Bad as he slides forward, farther onto the blade, and surprisingly gently lays Bad down onto the ground  
•Phil pulls out the sword and goes to fly up to the window, but due to the clipped feathers, Phil can’t get enough lift or control to properly fly, and instead climbs a tree from which he jumps and crashes through the massive stained glass window to enter the mansion, and the brothers’ room.  
•Both Tommy and Techno wake up, Techno sends laelaps away to get help and gets out of the bed to attack Phil, not knowing who he is at first because of the darkness and his messed up memory and the fact Phil is supposed to be dead, but when he gets close enough, Phil swings the sword at Techno and hits him in the head with the hilt of the sword. Techno falls to the ground unconscious, with a concussion and a bleeding head wound  
•Tommy is frozen in shock, and Phil looks between his two sons, before deciding that Tommy would be easier to keep in the long run and easier to transport, so he approaches Tommy and basically strangles him until he passes out due to lack of air

\- [x] -Epilogue  
•Bad respawns and rushes to the boys’ room, and finds Techno still unconscious and bleeding out on the floor. He takes Techno to a different room and after bandaging his head, he leaves to find Fundy and the rest of the search party.  
•Dream returns to more or less normal in the Prison (one of the lower security cells), and Sam interrogates Dream on what happened. Dream explains how he felt wrong once he got to the execution platform, and then how once Phil was brought out, he felt as though thoughts were being forced into his mind and telling him things and to do things, forcing their will on him until he wasn’t in control of his body, unable to tell where he ended and the other began. He then says that it forced him to break the chains and then the other left, and until now, he couldn’t remember how to function without the other because it took that from him. Sam is concerned, and even more so when Laelaps shows up outside the cell, yipping and looking at him like she knew something he needed to see.  
•Tubbo and the others are wandering through the forest when an exhausted and bloodied (techno’s blood) Bad showed up and told them they had to return. Bad tells them Philza killed him and then took Tommy again, leaving Techno bleeding out and unconscious in the room. Tubbo starts to break down because he just got Tommy back and now he’s gone again.  
•Tommy wakes up in a cave tied to a chair, his arms tied to the arms of the chair, his legs tied to the legs, and ropes even wrapped around his torso to secure him even more to the chair. He notices Philza in the cave as well, arms wrapped around his legs, tattered wings splayed out next to him, and talking to himself while occasionally coughing up inky black stuff that stains the stone floor and his hands. Phil looks up suddenly and directly at Tommy, where he mutters something about having to save Tommy, save Tommy from himself because he, Phil, is the greatest danger to Tommy, but he needs Tommy because he can’t protect him if he doesn’t have Tommy but he cant do that because- why? Why? Why couldn’t he? Who was the biggest threat to tommy? He couldn’t remember, remember, remember. He had to remember. What was he thinking about? Nothing, nothing, nothing. He needs to keep Tommy safe, happy, perfectly fine, perfect, perfect, perfect. Tommy would be perfect if he could make Tommy his, it would be so easy, make him his, safe, safe, safe. Phil reaches out to Tommy’s mind and Tommy feels something other in his mind and it’s sickeningly gentle as it forces him to change to it’s will and it feels so wrong but so right and he can’t tell if its it or him who thinks it feels right or wrong and he screams snd screams but he doesn’t know if he actually is because he feels like he’s smiling and he’s happy and this is good, he likes this and being here and he’s okay and good and just needs to stay still and quiet and perfect and he will be fine and okay forever.

\- [ ] -End; the script.  
•Literally just the script

Two

\- [ ] Save me from yourself  
• :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)  
\- [ ]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any questions or things I didn’t really explain that you want to ask about, this is the place to ask them! 
> 
> Also if you tell me something cursed I’ll give you a 🍪cookie.


End file.
